Second earthquake rattles Netherlands, waking Emmen residents

A second earthquake shook the Netherlands last night, this time in the town of Emmen, Drenthe. The earthquake happened just after 11:30 p.m., with a resident telling RTV Drenthe that he heard a loud bang. Dutch meteorology agency KNMI measured the quake in Emmen with a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale. The second earthquake happened just five-and-a-half hours after a 3.1-magnitude quake shook up the region around Hellum, Groningen, about 60 kilometers north of Emmen. The Groningen incident was the strongest earthquake of the year in the Netherlands. Reports of the Emmen tremor flooded social media website Twitter, with users publishing tweets about being woken from their sleep with a “thump and vibration”. The KNMI has no reason to link the cause of the two quakes, broadcaster NOS reported. Damage estimates for the two incidents were not yet tallied as of Thursday morning.