Landslide in Sweden

EJGE/Magazine Report: Landslide in Sweden

"Skredet i Vagnhärad"

The Landslide of May 23, 1997

Dr. K. Rainer Massarsch informed the world by a widely distributed email message that a significant landslide occured in Sweden in the early hours of May 23, 1997 in the small village of Vagnhärad in Trosa kommun on the east coast of "Southern Sweden" (see map--This is a map of Sweden; to the east is Baltic Sea; note that Norway, to the west of Sweden, is not shown on the map. The slide location is marked red)

A reproduction of the original email message by Dr. K. Rainer Massarsch can be seen in its entirety in this page.

The photographs attached to the email message are shown on a separate page.

One of the interesting aspects of this incident is that the slide is known to have given an advance warning---but a gotechnical investigation of the small precurosry slide concluded that the slope was safe! A full scale geotechnical investigation seems to be under way according to newspaper reports.

Swedish Geotechnical Institute Web pages

Swedish Geotechnical Institute (SGI) Web Site
There are five large pictures are given here---mainly closeup of the houses damaged.

Skredet i Vagnhärad - Allmän information
Press Release 2/97, May 24 1997, by SGI

Trosa County Home Page

Continously updated news and information can be found in Trosa County hompage.

Pictures are on this page (if the page is not accessible, see the next link below) The captions in Swedish (English translations) are:

Geotekniska provborrningar (Borings for soil sampling)

Geotekniskt undersökningsarbete pågår (Geotechnical investigations continue)

EU-parlamentarikern Maj-Lis Lööwbesöker det olycksdrabbade område (European Union Parliament Member Maj-Lis Lööw visits the disaster stricken area).

Raserat hus, Påskvägen i Vagnhärad (House cut in two by the slide on Påskvägen Street in Vagnhärad)

Markförskjutningar i samband med skredet (Large scrap marks associated with the slide)

Local Newspapers

More pictures and press releases in the local newspapers. Also see:
Trosa kommun news
Sodermanlands Nyheter

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