On the 12^th of October 2024, three 500 kg World War II bombs were detonated simultaneously in Göttingen at 4:45 p.m. After about one second, the first seismic waves reached the Wiechert earthquake observatory, located about 3 km to the east. The seismic waves were recorded by both the modern STS-2 seismometer (GTTG station) and also with the historical Wiechert seismographs (GTT station) using a laser system and parallel smoked paper.

In addition to Göttingen, the German regional seismological network of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) also recorded the detonations at stations further away using high-precision broadband seismometers. The figure shows the 3 components of the CLZ (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) and GTTG (Göttingen) stations. Both stations are 45 km apart, with the first waves arriving at CLZ about 8 seconds later.

Karl-Heinz Jäckel, Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, also evaluated the data from the CHRS (Christianenhaus) station – about 61 km away in the eastern region of the Harz. We obtained a local amplitude Ml of about 1.7 (corresponding to the Richter scale) and maximum ground movements of:

• about 7 micrometers in Göttingen,
• about 37 nanometers in Clausthal-Zellerfeld,
• about 15 nanometers in Christianenhaus.

The entire Harz was shaken by the violent bomb explosions – but only very, very slightly