Abstract
A moderately strong earthquake struck southern Sweden 5 km south-west of the town of Sjöbo, 60 km east of Malmö, in the early morning at 6:20 a.m. local time on 16 December 2008. The epicentre was located in Skåne, a region that is known for its extremely low seismicity, and its location was determined to be 55.5°N and 13.6°E with an uncertainty of about 6 km. A depth of 9 km with an uncertainty of 3 km was obtained from teleseismic observations at the Yellowknife seismic array, USA. Since waveform data from the Swedish national seismic network are not yet available, depth estimation using local stations has so far not been attempted. During the period 1970–2008, only three small earthquakes were detected in the region; the largest measured 2.8 on the local Richter scale. To our knowledge none of these previous earthquakes were felt by people. The historical archives dating back to 1375 show that 14 other earthquakes have been felt in the area. The largest of these, recorded in 1894, was felt over an area of 7300 km2 and had an epicentre 50 km east of the 16 December 2008 earthquake (Scandinavian Earthquake Archive 2003). The activity in southern Sweden is similar to that of northern Sjælland and north-western Jylland, and confirms the low seismicity of the region (Gregersen et al. 1991).
Highlights
A moderately strong earthquake struck southern Sweden 5 km south-west of the town of Sjöbo, 60 km east of Malmö, in the early morning at 6:20 a.m. local time on 16 December 2008
Earthquakes felt in Denmark are generally small and felt in north-western Jylland or northern Sjælland (Gregersen et al 1998; Larsen et al 2008)
Large earthquakes with epicentres located outside Denmark have been felt in Denmark, like the earthquakes in Lissabon in 1755, Oslo in 1904 and Kaliningrad in 2004 (Gregersen et al 2007)
Summary
GEUS had received more than 3000 earthquake reports (Fig. 1), and after a month the number exceeded 4000 reports. Reports from the population are an important tool to assess the impact of an earthquake and to identify locations that are vulnerable to ground shaking. This is still of great interest as earthquakes can be compared to historic events predating the era of instrumental recording. The road is exposed to heavy traffic and the cracks could have opened at any time They do not look any different from other asphalt cracks. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre has received information (a photo) of cracked asphalt in Sweden, but it has not been confirmed that these cracks formed during the earthquake
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