On Tuesday, a seismologist stated that the seismic activity detected in the Baltic Sea at the time of the destruction of both Nord Stream pipelines was most likely caused by a deliberate explosion, rather than a natural occurrence such as an earthquake.
As Fox News reports, Bjorn Lund, director of the Swedish National Seismic Network, said that seismic data he and his colleagues gathered at the time of the leak showed that the explosions were in the water, and not underneath the seabed. The incident ruptured both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which transport fuel from Russia to Germany and are key components of the entire energy infrastructure for Europe.
According to Lund, the first blast was recorded on Monday, southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, while the second blast recorded that same night, to the northeast of the islandm was as powerful as a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
But, Lund said, “there’s no doubt, this is not an earthquake.”
Several European leaders were quick to issue statements suggesting that the explosions were likely an act of sabotage by an unknown perpetrator, and that the act was most likely committed in response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that her government would consider the incident to have been caused by “deliberate actions,” while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki directly called the incident “an act of sabotage,” which most likely means “the next step of escalation in the situation that we are dealing with in Ukraine.”
The massive energy cost of the pipelines’ destruction threatens a dire situation for Europe in the coming winter, with the continent now deprived of a significant source of fossil fuel. Although some countries have attempted to shift to so-called “green energy” sources, real-world experiments in these endeavors, such as the state of California, have proven that such energy sources are not at all prepared to sustain an entire population. As such, there are concerns that many Europeans could be without heating when the winter approaches, which could lead to a humanitarian crisis.