By Angel Shaw Published 3 minutes ago
The terrible events of Netflix’s The Abyss started with an earthquake within the Kiruna mine, but what really caused this real-world disaster?
Summary
- The Abyss is a dramatized version of the 2020 Kiruna mine earthquake, with fictional fatalities and events.
- The actual earthquake was caused by mining activity, involving a collapsed rock pillar in block 22 of the mine.
- The movie accurately depicted the quake's cause, but the aftermath portrayed in The Abyss was entirely fictional.
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Netlix's The Abyss is based on the 2020 Kiruna mine earthquake in Kiruna, Sweden, but what caused this disaster? While increased seismic activity can be natural and unavoidable, it's noted in the 2023 disaster thriller that the earthquake that set the film's series of unfortunate events rolling was the result of mining. In real life, the Kiruna mine earthquake was indeed caused by humans, but the factors involved were far more complicated than The Abyss described.
The 2020 Earthquake Was Induced By Mining Activity (But Several Factors Contributed To It)
Earthquakes are one of the world's many natural disasters, but the one that happened at the Kiruna mine in 2020 resulted from the ongoing dig for iron ore in this region. According to the official website of the company that runs the mine, LKAB, mining first began here in 1989, and approximately 950 million tons of iron ore have been produced since. Naturally, this has taken quite a toll on the land, which is why the town of Kiruna must relocate as the ground beneath it has been weakened. Additionally, the strain that this puts on the Earth can cause an increase in seismic activity.
In a process called land subsidence, the land beneath Kiruna, Sweden, is slowly sinking, and further strong earthquakes could potentially exacerbate this issue as seen in The Abyss .
After analyzing block 22 of the mine, which was determined to be the origin point of the earthquake, LKAB found that a rock pillar that formed between the shafts used to dump mining material collapsed. This caused large-scale failure in the rock mass in the area, which covered hundreds of meters, contributing to the 2020 quake. Still, there were other factors involved with the disaster seen in Netflix's The Abyss, which LKAB sites as complex geology, elevation differences between blocks 22 and 26, and high stress around galleries&all of which the company is now attempting to safeguard against.
How Accurate Netflix's The Abyss Is To The Real Earthquake's Origins
The Abyss didn't go as in-depth into the cause of the 2020 Kiruna mine earthquake as LKAB's website. The real-wold company took months to safely analyze what had happened, and though mining was resumed three days after the quake, the portion identified as the origin remained closed off for years. In the Netflix thriller, however, the primary character, Frigga, heads into the mine immediately to discover what caused the quake. This led to the death of her friend, Erika, and the realization that massive cavities had opened under the town of Kiruna.
Though the quake and its cause were accurate in The Abyss, pretty much everything that followed was entirely fictional.
Though the quake and its cause were accurate in The Abyss, pretty much everything that followed was entirely fictional. In real life, LKAB safely handled the inspection, no one was killed, and the town of Kiruna wasn't affected by the earthquake in any way. Though there have been cases of mining-related earthquakes creating massive craters in the Earth, like the 1961 quake in Idkerberget, Sweden (which is cited in the opening scene of The Abyss), this didn't happen in Kiruna in 2020. Instead, The Abyss explores the what-ifs of the real-world disaster.
Source: LKAB's official website
