The Groningen city of Appingedam was hit by two earthquakes in two days time. The earthquakes happened on Wednesday and Thursday, and both registered 1.9 on the Richter scale, according to meteorological institute KNMI.
Multiple people reported feeling the quakes, Dagblad van het Noorden reports. Some also reported hearing a bang with Thursday's earthquake.
Over the past two weeks there were eight small earthquakes in the gas extraction area in Groningen:
Dozens of Dutch tourists are still stuck on and around Lombok after a massive earthquake hit the Indonesian island on Sunday. Evacuations are chaotic. All departing flights are fully booked and there are long queues at the airport. And boats are struggling to evacuate the mass of people, relatives of stranded Dutch told newspaper AD.
As far as is known, no Dutch were killed in a severe earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday. Some Dutch were injured, but their injuries are not serious, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to RTL Nieuws.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 hit the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday afternoon. At least 91 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands of homes were destroyed. The earthquake also destroyed a children's home run by Dutch man Chaim Fetter. "It is a massive tragedy. You build something for 14 years and it is destroyed in less than 10 seconds. But luckily all the children are unharmed", he said to NOS.
Heerlen and Landgraaf in Limburg were hit by four light earthquakes on Monday morning. The first quake had a magnitude of 2.4 and happened at a depth of 5 kilometers at Heerlen.
The subsequent quakes happened deeper and had magnitudes of 1.5, 1.9 and 1.3 on the Richter scale, according to measurements by meteorological institute KNMI, NU.nl reports.
The earthquakes were hardly felt and such earthquakes rarely cause damage to buildings.
A small earthquake, registering 2.0 on the Richter scale, hit the Drenthe village of Dalen on Tuesday morning. The quake happened at a depth of three kilometers, and was so light that many people did not even notice it, RTV Drenthe reports.
"Gas is extracted near Dalen. We also believe that the earthquake has to do with that", Laslo Evers, seismologist at meteorological institute KNMI, said to the broadcaster. There were previously gas extraction quakes near Dalen in 2000 and 2002.
The repair and reinforcement of homes that suffered serious damage as a result of gas extraction earthquakes in Groningen, needs to be speeded up, the state supervision on mines SoDM said in advice to Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs, RTL Nieuws reports.
The Noord-Holland village of Warder, near Edam, was shaken by an earthquake around 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The quake measured 2.5 on the Richter scale and happened around 3 kilometers underground, according to meteorological institute KNMI.
The KNMI describes it as an "induced quake", which means that it was caused by gas extraction, according to RTL Nieuws.
Gas extraction in Groningen will gradually be reduced to zero, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced in his weekly press conference on Thursday. He called it an "important decision". Shortly after the press conference, the government released a statement saying that gas extraction in the province will be reduced to less than 12 billion cubic meters per year by 2022, and then to 7.5 million cubic meters per year. "In the years after that gas extraction will be reduced to zero."
Over 700 donors for Oxfam Novib's Dutch branch withdrew their support to the organization due to reports of Oxfam Great Britain employees having sex parties with possibly underage prostitutes in Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake on the island in 2010. The Dutch branch understands why the donors are withdrawing their support, Ruud Huurman of Oxfam Novib Nederland said to BNR.
The province of Groningen was hit by another earthquake caused by gas extraction on Sunday afternoon. The quake had a magnitude of 2.2, according to meteorological institute KNMI. It's epicenter was in the town of Garrelsweer at a depth of 3 kilometers.
On Thursday a 2.0 magnitude earthquake could also be felt in the province. This one's epicenter was in Scharmer, near Loppersum.
Aid workers for charity organization Oxfam had sex parties with possibly underage prostitutes in the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, and the charity then covered it up, British newspaper The Times reported on Friday. "It came as a shock", a spokesperson of the Dutch branch of the charity, Oxfam Novib, said to the Telegraaf. "Everyone is a bit dazed here."
An earthquake was felt in Groningen on Thursday afternoon. According to meteorological institute KNMI, the quake had a magnitude of 2.0 and it's epicenter was near Loppersum at a depth of 3 kilometers.
The quake happened around 4:30 p.m., according to broadcaster NOS. Dozens of people from Loppersum, Zeerijp and Garrelsweer reported feeling it. The KNMI called it an 'induced' earthquake, which means that it was caused by gas extraction.
Gas production in Loppersum, Groningen has been shut down with immediate effect, Dutch petroleum company NAM announced on Friday. Closing the Loppersum gas fields immediately was one of the measures the state supervisor on mines SoDM advised following an earthquake in the region last month, the strongest earthquake to hit Groningen in five years.
Gas extraction in Groningen must be halved to a maximum of 12 billion cubic meters a year in order to stop fracking earthquakes and guarantee safety in the province, the state supervisor on mines SoDM said in a recommendation to Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate on Thursday. The Loppersum clusters must close immediately, the SoDM said, RTL Nieuws reports.
Dutch oil and gas giant NAM must immediately compensate homeowners in the fracking earthquake zone in Groningen for the depreciation of their home, the court in Leeuwarden ruled on Tuesday. The company only wanted to pay compensation at the sale of the house, arguing that the level of depreciation is only then clear. But the court ruled that it is possible to estimate the value decline of a home without it being sold, NOS reports.
Almost all parties in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, demanded that Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate come up with a protocol for handling earthquake damage caused by gas extraction in Groningen within two weeks. Wiebes will make haste on such a protocol, but can not give a time frame for when it will be ready, he said in a parliamentary debate on the matter on Tuesday, NOS reports.
The Centrum Veilig Wonen (CVW), the Dutch official contact point related to earthquake damage, counted 1311 damage reports filed after the earthqueke that struck in Zeerijp last Monday. Around 200 damage reports come from the municipality of Zeerijp.
A 3.4-magnitude earthquake rattled the province of Groningen on Monday afternoon. It has been the hardest earthquake in Groningen since 2012. The KNMI meterology agency qualified the earthquake as "heavy".
The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Eric Wiebes announced that he intends to accelerate the process of decreasing the gas production in Groningen. The minister made the declaration shortly after a relatively strong earthquake, caused by removing natural gas from the ground in the region, shook the province Monday afternoon, according to FD.
The Centrum Veilig Wonen (CVW) in Groningen received 316 damage claims related to a magnitude 3.4 earthquake that struck Monday afternoon, newspaper AD reported. Some 46 of these complaints come directly from the village of Zeerijp, the epicenter of the earthquake.
Most of the damage reported are for cracks in walls and door that won't open. According to CVW spokesperson Arjan van de Leur, the agency is expecting the number of claims to rise much higher in the coming days. "Most of the people make a true estimation with daylight or over the weekend", he told AD.
A 3.4-magnitude earthquake rattled the province of Groningen on Monday afternoon. There were no immediate damage reports of note following Monday 3 p.m. quake, which had an epicenter near Zeerijp and could be felt at least 10 kilometers away, the KNMI meteorology agency said.
Broadcaster RTV Noord said those in its Europapark, Groningen offices 20 kilometers away could also feel the ground shake.
Attorney Dennis Woudsma said on Twitter it felt as though the building he was in creaked loudly and then began violently shaking as though someone had grabbed it.
Dutch oil and gas giant NAM warns that gas extraction in Hardenberg and its surrounds can cause subsidence, earthquakes and damages to buildings, De Stentor reports.
The NAM wants to keep extracting gas in the Hardenberg area for thirteen years longer than planned. The chances that these practices will cause ground vibrations are real, according to the company. In worst cases it could cause cracks in the nearby buildings.
Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate called gas extraction in Groningen a "Dutch government failure of un-Dutch like proportions" during a visit to various Groningen municipalities affected by fracking earthquakes on Wednesday. He wants to quickly make agreements with the local governments about the consequences of earthquakes in the province, ANP reports.
Too little attention is paid to children and young people in the Groningen earthquake zone, Children's Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer said in a new study published on Wednesday. The study found that some of the 30 thousand kids and young people living in the area affected by gas extraction earthquakes, struggle to deal with the earthquakes and their consequences, AD reports.
