At 06.32, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4 was registered. The epicenter was between Stadt and the Faroe Islands, 138 kilometers west of Florø, in the North Sea.
– We get a strength of between 4.4 to 4.6, depending on what estimate we use, says Berit Marie Storheim, senior engineer at the Department of Geosciences at the University of Bergen.
Norsar stated that the quake had a magnitude of 5.0 on the scale. It’s the strongest since 1989.
– There was an unusually strong earthquake. We think the strength is 5.1, so it will be felt in a very large area, says Anne Strømmen Lycke, CEO of Norsar.
– No danger to oil installations
If the earthquake is large, Lycke does not fear damage or tsunami as a result of the earthquake.
– To cause a tsunami or tidal wave, the strength must be closer to six to seven. Platforms and oil installations are well dimensioned for this, but I believe they have known it well, Lycke adds.
Equinor reports just before 8 o’clock that day shuts down Snorre B platform after the quake.
Lars Ottermøller at the Norwegian National Seismological Network, tells NRK that such strong earthquakes are rare. Although this area in the North Sea is quite prone to earthquakes.
– This is actually an area where earthquakes are quite common. But in this strength it is rarer. It may only happen ten to twenty years apart, he says.
– Heard rumbling
The quake was well noticeable all over Western Norway, and all the way from Egersund in the south to Møre and Romsdal in the north, there are reports that they felt the quake.
– I lay in bed and dozed off, noticed the glass panes clinking and it rumbled for a while, thought it was a rock slide, but also thought of earthquakes, writes Haldis Kilen in Fortun in Western Norway to NRK.
– I heard rumbling, and it felt as if there was a truck outside the house, writes Svein Erik Dyrseth on Averøy in Møre og Romsdal.
There are also reports from Australia that they also felt the quake.
Rune Johansen from Kongsberg writes the following to NRK:
– I sat at the table and felt a slight shaking with a kind of thundering sound. It lasts for four, five seconds. I have never before been so sure of an earthquake before, he writes.
Per Olav Bakken, who lives in Hyggen in Asker, also noticed the quake.
Fear of the house
Monika Hovland Berg from Forus in Stavanger says this to NRK:
– Suddenly the whole bed and the house and everything shook. I have three dogs in the bedroom that have sprung up. I grabbed the dogs with me and took them out, because I thought that now the house was collapsing, she says.
She simply feared that the house would smoke.
“I’m still shaking. It was pretty strong to experience this,” she says
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