Southern Sweden Shaken By Tremor
Magnitude 4.7, near Aelvdalen, Western Sweden.
A moderate earthquake struck near the small Swedish town of Aelvdalen on Monday 15th September. The earthquake was reportedly felt throughout most of Sweden, as well as neighbouring Norway and Finland. There are reports of minor damage.
The magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck at 3:08pm local time, and had a focal depth of 14.3 kilometres. Within a fifty mile radius there have been no recorded earthquakes over magnitude 4.0 since 1970; in fact there have been only nine earthquakes over magnitude 4.0 since 1970 in Sweden, the largest a magnitude 4.8 earthquake in the south of the country in July 1986.
Earthquakes of this kind are incredibly rare; although Sweden has minor seismic activity (75 earthquakes since 1983 over magnitude 3), most of these earthquakes are either coastal (near Gothenberg and Malmo in the south of the country) or near Gallivare in the north of the country (caused by deep mining for iron, copper, silver and gold). Today's earthquake was located deep inland in the mountainous regions of western Sweden, where the last recorded earthquake of size was in 1497.
Scandinavia may not seem to be of huge consequence to us in the UK, but earthquakes near Norway are believed to have triggered tsunamis in the past (for example, the Storegga Slide of 8000 years ago). Similar events are indeed possible, though it is incredibly unlikely they will occur during our lifetimes.
Earthquake Parameters
GEOFON (GFZ Potsdam, Germany)
Body-wave magnitude: 4.7
Depth: 10 kilometres
Epicentre: 61.56N, 14.49E
Body-wave magnitude: 4.7
Depth: 14.3 kilometres
Epicentre: 61.535N, 14.390E
Magnitude: 4.68
Epicentre: 61.77N, 14.10E
This article was written on the 15th September 2014 by J H Gurney.
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