Every morning between 1:15 and 1:45, the largest underground iron ore mine in the world, in Sweden’s northernmost city, begins blasting. One way to locate your proximity to the Kiruna mine is by placing a full glass of water on your nightstand and setting an alarm. If you wake up and see ripples, you’re near the damaged buildings, in “Old Kiruna.” Some locals call this part of town the Wrong Side. Near the church or the hospital, the explosions can feel like tiny earthquakes. About a mile east, you can’t feel a thing.

Almost seventy-five years of underground ore mining has caused the surface of the earth in Kiruna to sink, collapse, and crack. In 2004, the company in charge of the mine, LKAB, announced that the city center would need to be relocated. About six thousand residents—a third of the population—would need to evacuate; the city center would be demolished, as would Kiruna’s schools, hospitals, and some one thousand places of work.…