Locals baffled by mysterious shaking in Stockholm

Many people living in and around Stockholm have felt a strange rumble with seismologists firmly denying that it’s an earthquake.

According to the Swedish National Seismological Network (SNSN) there is nothing detected that would suggest an earthquake has taken place.

“We can with all certainty rule out that it was an earthquake”, says Peter Schmidt, seismologist at SNSN 

The strange earthquake-like tremors in Stockholm have left many, including experts, confused about what could be causing it

Louise Levin, head of communications for the air force of Sweden, joked saying, ‘you can call Saab (the Swedish Aerospace company) about that’.

The air force did in fact carry out tests in the area which could be responsible. “I cannot say with certainty that there have been sound bangs that have occurred, but it sounds like that,” says air force press manager Mattias Rådström 

Locals took to Twitter to comment on the mysterious shaking in the Swedish city, “If it wasn’t an earthquake what was it? It shook profusely”, wrote a resident.

Another person commenting asked, “Is it an earthquake out here?”.

In a local Facebook group there were more comments about the tremor, “It hit like a thunderclap and then it shook.” said a resident of an island outside of Stockholm.

“The house shook a lot about an hour ago. At first I thought it was the building…, but this was something else, much stronger,” said another. 

The emergency rescue service of Stockholm county hypothesizes that the tremors are from road construction, “but we don’t know”, comments Henrik Jynnersjö at emergency rescue services.

The Swedish Transport Administration says that they were not aware of any major works in the area.

Although Sweden does have earthquakes daily they are usually too small to be felt by anyone except for advanced seismic technology

Sweden experiences earthquakes everyday but only on a minimal level, so minimal that often they can only be detected with seismic sensitive equipment. This isn’t to say that stronger earthquakes haven’t been felt before in the country.

“We can get quakes of up to magnitude six on the Richter scale. Five point four is the strongest we’re completely sure about. That happened near the Koster islands, off the west coast, in 1904. It was such a big one that it shook the whole of southern and central Sweden, Norway and the whole of Denmark. And it was even said to be felt all the way to Saint Petersburg,” says Björn Lund, head of the SNSN.

According to a website that tracks seismic activity, Sweden’s last confirmed earthquake occurred on January 19th in a county to the north-east of Stockholm with a reading of 1.1 magnitude on the Richter scale.

There are some unusual anomalies however, where pockets of tremors appear seemingly geographically dislocated from the shifting effect of the tectonic plates movement.

“Over the past 20 years, we’ve observed a cluster of seismic sites that don’t quite behave as we thought. We don’t know why they’re there.” explain Lund in a short film released by the SNSN.