Earthquake shocks Norway

Research foundation NORSAR personnel say the quake occurred just after 20:22 Central European Time (CET). Its coordinates were latitude 59.54N and longitude 5.60E which puts the epicentre somewhere between Skjold and Vikebygd, about 12 kilometres north-northeast of Haugesund.

Whilst a small aftershock of 2.2 Richter was recorded at approximately 05:00 this morning, seismologist Johannes Schweizer tells The Foreigner, “I don’t expect anything larger to occur now. There will probably be some other, smaller aftershocks, but nobody will feel them.”

Tolleiv Byrkjedal from Byrkjedal in Gjesdal municipality was one of many who experienced the earthquake.

”The house shook violently accompanied by a strange sound. Both me and my wife got a pain in our heads afterwards,” he said to Stavanger Aftenblad.

Many people from Byrkjedal in the south to Haugesund in the north also reported feeling the earthquake. One hobby seismologist in Tananger reported his measurements registered it lasted for approximately two minutes.

Ålgård resident, Sandra Maeckel Nicole Røtting, exclaimed, “It was so powerful, that the sofa we were sitting in moved and the glasses in the cabinet rattled.”

NORSAR’s Johannes Schweizer informs The Foreigner, “this was probably the largest for 20 years but earthquakes are common in all of Vestlandet. This one didn’t really come as a surprise.”