Two explosions next to Nord Stream

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There is a fire in an apartment building with heavy smoke in Asarum in Karlshamn municipality. The rescue leader urges everyone in the area to go indoors and close doors, windows and ventilationShow more

Here Björn Lund shows how the explosions are visible in their measurement tool.
Seismologist: Two explosions next to Nord Stream

The gas leaks on Nord Stream 1 and 2 are being investigated as deliberate attacks. Now SVT can reveal that several Swedish and Danish measuring stations registered strong underwater explosions in the same area on Monday.

- There is no doubt that these are blasts or explosions, says Björn Lund, lecturer in seismology at the Swedish National Seismic Network, SNSN.

Monday's triple leaks on the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 have created headlines worldwide. According to Nord Stream, the leak in the Baltic Sea has caused "unprecedented" damage.

Now measurements from the Swedish national seismic network show that two clear explosions were measured next to the gas lines during Monday. One of them had a magnitude of 2.3, similar to a perceptible earthquake, and was registered at measuring stations throughout the country.

- You can clearly see how the waves bounce from the bottom to the surface. There is no doubt that it was a blast or explosion. We even had a station in Kalix that picked this up, says Björn Lund, who is a lecturer in seismology and director of the Swedish national seismic network, which measures Swedish earthquakes and explosions.

Same area
The first explosion was recorded at 02:03 on the night of Monday and the second at 19:04 on Monday evening.

The warnings about the gas leaks came from the Maritime Administration at 1:52 pm and 8:41 pm on Monday, respectively, after ships detected bubbles on the surface.

SVT has obtained the coordinates of the measured explosions and they are in the same area where the gas leaks were recorded.

- It is very close to the coordinates registered by the Swedish Maritime Administration. As for the most powerful explosion, it is six kilometers away, says Björn Lund, who believes that their measurements usually have a margin of error of two to three kilometers.

"Used to get information about explosions"
The last time a similar seismological event was registered in the area was in 2016. According to Björn Lund, it is not an area that is usually used for exercises by the defense.

- We usually get information about explosions that take place underwater, but sometimes we don't get it. In this case, we have not received any information.

He does not want to speculate on how the explosion might have happened.

- It is very unclear what has happened and it is not my business to comment. The only thing we can do is compare the waves to what we have seen before to see what caused it. If there is an explosion or something that happened inside the pipe.

According to Björn Lund, the information about the explosions has been forwarded to the Armed Forces.

The Swedish Armed Forces' press service writes to SVT Nyheter that they do not want to comment on the information.