In the municipality of Enontekiö in Finnish Lapland, a 2.8 magnitude earthquake shocked the residents on Friday morning.
According to local information, the shaking was strong and was felt by the residents of the neighboring municipality of Muonio, about 50 kilometers away.
Tuija LuhtaA seismologist at the Institute of Seismology at the University of Helsinki confirmed that Enontekiö experienced a major earthquake on the scale of Finland.
Shaken morning coffee
A tremor struck during a local resident Iisko Matti Näkkäläjärvimorning cup of coffee. When he felt the earthquake in his home in Enontekiö’s Näkkälä village, he looked at the clock, which read 7:03.
"I wondered where the thunder was and why the window panes were rattling," Näkkäläjärvi told.
At first, Näkkäläjärvi also thought that the jet had flown overhead. With no sign of a thunderstorm or a plane, he suspected his old heating system was working. But an inspection of the device revealed that it wasn’t behind the noise either.
It was then that he realized that the rumbling could be caused by an earthquake.
Dozens of small earthquakes occur in Finland every year
According to the Department of Seismology at the University of Helsinki, several dozen earthquakes are registered in Finland every year. These tremors are usually relatively weak, measuring 0-4 magnitudes on the Richter scale.
As of last Tuesday, a total of 44 earthquakes had been recorded in Finland in 2022. The strongest of them was recorded on February 2 in Kuusamo.
Before Friday, three small earthquakes had been documented in Enontekiö this year: January 5 (magnitude 0.5), February 15 (1.2) and March 25 (1.0).
The strongest earthquake in Finland this decade occurred on March 10, 2020 in Enontekiö, with a magnitude of 2.5.
Source: The Nordic Page