Freaky Friday Files: The Denmark Tremors - Quake or no Quake?
- Ash
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
DISCLAIMER: This blog post contains content that might be unsettling for some readers, particularly those who have experienced an earthquake/other natural disasters (like me, lol). Reader discretion advised.
Hi friends. For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could take a look at the infamous Denmark Tremors that occurred in 2023. The first part of this blog also discusses my experiences with the 2011 CHCH earthquake (FYI, if you want to skip that part).
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The Denmark Tremors - Quake or no Quake?
My Experiences of the 2011 CHCH Quakes
Have you ever felt an earthquake? It's terrifying. The first one I ever felt was at 4 AM in 2010, and we thought that was it. LOL, just kidding! Tectonic plates have a mind of their own. 2011 was a crazy year for my hometown.
Everyone I know in Christchurch, NZ, will be able to tell you exactly where they were at the time of the 2011 quake. Where was I? Well, we had half a day at high school, so I was walking home with my friend K. We would have been 15. She didn't know what to do, so my instinct took over, and I said, get down on the ground and cover your head. We did that and waited. We are so lucky that no power lines fell on us. Others weren't so lucky. K was VERY shaken up. I was scared, but I felt like I had to be the mumma bear in that situation. I walked K home, still hadn't heard from my mum; there was no reception. K's house made it further for me to walk back to my house, but I was okay. I got home, no sign of mum or our cat Bella. Bookcases had fallen over, no power, and still no reception on my phone. No water. The smell was disgusting. I think maybe I walked back to mum's work, or she came home - this part is a blur, mum was okay. Our house only had cosmetic damage, thankfully. No power, no water, for 6 weeks. Supermarkets were shut. People were being rescued from the CCTV building. Lots of people didn't survive. So much liquifaction. The worst thing about this was the kid from my school who passed away. It was his birthday, and he got the bus into the CBD, and a building fell on the bus - there's no nicer way to put it. May he rest in peace.
Anyway, we were all okay, my family was okay, but lots of us were traumatised. It was a lot to deal with for a 15-year-old. Eventually, Bella came home, and after a while, things got back to normal - except for the fact that we went to school on a different campus and our school hours were 1 PM - 5 PM. I don't know if that was better for us or not. I think it's important to ALWAYS have emergency supplies (not like doomsday prepper levels), but my mum had safe drinking water, canned foods, medicine, and cooking supplies that don't run on power. And kudos to civil defense NZ. And kudos to Bella, who is almost 17 and still kicking.
So that brings me to the 2023 incident in Denmark
On the 13th of May, 2023, many people living on an island called "Bornholm" in Denmark all reported experiencing strong earthquake-like tremors. There were at least 60+ reports. The weird part? Seismological investigations showed that no earthquake had occurred - seismographs do measure things other than earthquakes, too. There were no casualties from these tremors, but one house did end up with a crack in a wall. It's easier to joke about things when there are no casualties, but comedy does help us cope - look at SNL post 9/11.
These tremors occurred around 20 minutes after a controlled explosion went off in Poland, which would make logical sense as the cause. However, scientists didn't think this was the direct cause of the tremors, as it just wasn't big enough. Later that night, more reports of tremors occurred, with some reports even coming from Sweden.
It was concluded that the Bornholm tremors were caused by acoustic pressure waves from events in the atmosphere, rather than seismic activity. However, there isn't really a full logical explanation for the tremors. There is one theory called the "Inversion Layer" theory, which is where scientists speculate that a "temperature inversion layer," aka a lid of air over Poland, reflected sound waves from military exercises in Ustka down to the ground, and those waves travelled to Bornholm. This hasn't been confirmed.
As a sidenote, the year before (2022), there was the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, where someone purposefully caused the gas pipes to leak. The leaking gas pipes were located near Bornholm and were used to transport gas between Russia and Germany. I believe these leaks caused tremors/shakes in similar areas.
Reports of tremors, shaking, and low-frequency noises around areas such as Denmark and Sweden are quite common, and more often than not, there's no actual earthquake. One explanation for these reports could be aeroplanes breaking the sound barrier (it isn't thought that this was the case for the Bornholm 2023 tremors).
Nature is very interesting. I wonder how much stuff happens in the atmosphere that humans don't know about or can't detect. I am not sure if Occam's Razor really helps us here. Because in this situation, the simplest answer isn't the answer.
What do you think was the cause of these tremors?
Also, if you have any ideas for future Freaky Friday Files posts, let me know in the comments below!!
That's all from me!
Stay safe, folks
Ash xx
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