Mysterious tremors rock Danish island of Bornholm near Nord Stream explosion site
Mysterious quakes rock the Danish island of Bornholm near the Nord Stream explosion site
- Scientists are puzzled by a series of small tremors recorded on Saturday
A series of small quakes recorded on the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, close to the site of the damaged Nord Stream gas pipeline, have puzzled scientists, who now say they were caused by “acoustic pressure waves from an unknown source.”
It was initially thought that the tremors, recorded on Saturday, were caused by earthquakes.
Subsequently, seismologists theorized that they came from controlled explosions in Poland, nearly 90 miles to the south, as part of military exercises.
But they are still unsure of the true origin of the unexplained geological phenomenon.
FILE PHOTO: Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor at Bornholm, Denmark September 27, 2022
On Monday, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, an official agency that monitors the subsurface, said the tremors were “not caused by earthquakes, but by pressure waves from an event in the atmosphere.”
However, they came from ‘an unknown source’.
“The seismologists can report that it is unlikely that the quakes originated from a controlled explosion in Poland, which occurred shortly before the first reports of quakes in Bornholm,” the body known as GEUS said in a statement.
On Saturday, GEUS said it had received “more than 60” tips from people on Bornholm that “earthquake-like tremors” – described as a deep rumbling, shaking and rattling, changing pressure in the ear – had been reported on Bornholm in the afternoon. .
Created shortly after the leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline were discovered, this map shows the location of the Danish island of Bornholm
Police said they too have been approached by citizens about the quake on the eastern part of the island.
Danish media reported that the quakes caused a crack in the wall of a house, but no one was injured.
GEUS said seismic tremors were measured at a magnitude of 2.3.
Polish authorities have said there was intense activity during the Anakonda23 exercise in Ustka, northern Poland, involving fighter jets and live ammunition firing of artillery ammunition.
GEUS, an independent research and advisory body within the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, said it had two seismographs on Bornholm collecting data 24 hours a day.
Bornholm, home to nearly 40,000 people, is a rocky island in the Baltic Sea, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.