Explosion Caused Ukraine Dam Collapse on June 6: Norwegian Seismologists

Seismologists from the Norwegian Seismic Array monitoring group (NORSAR) say they detected signals of an explosion in the area of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam on June 6 at 02:54 a.m. local time.

“Time and location coincide with reports in the media about the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. The signals indicate that there was an explosion,” the researchers said in a statement.

The magnitude estimate is between 1 and 2.

NORSAR shared a figure claiming they are signals from the Bukovina (BURAR) seismic array, a station that is approximately 620 km from the dam, to prove there was an explosion.

Ukraine and Russia are both slinging mud at each other for who blew up the 30m tall, 3.2km long Kakhovka dam. This dam was built in 1956 on the Dnipro river as part of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. It supplies water to the Crimean peninsula and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which are both under Russian control. The NPP gets cooling water from the reservoir.

The Norwegian researchers did not specify what caused the explosion at the dam, which Russia has controlled since invading Ukraine in February 2022.

"The order for this terrorist act was issued from the Kremlin, from Putin's office. Such instructions cannot be given from any other level. This is not the level of a battalion, a division, this is not even the level of Shoygu’s position," Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said on Radio Liberty broadcast.