Nearly 600 damage reports filed after Groningen earthquake
Almost 600 people have now reported damage to their property following Friday’s earthquake in Groningen, according to the institute which monitors quake-related events. The total now stands at 593, up from 246 on Friday.
The IMG has also received 25 alerts about a possible acutely unsafe situation and in two instances, immediate measures were taken, IMG spokesman Siebe Keulen told broadcaster NOS.
The quake epicentre was close to the village of Zeerijp and measured 3.4 on the Richter scale, making it the third-strongest ever recorded in the province. Residents across a large part of Groningen province felt the tremor.
Provincial governor René Paas said the earthquake was both a physical blow and a psychological one. The event, he said, “has shattered the hope that stopping gas extraction would prevent serious earthquakes”.
The Netherlands closed down the main Groningen gas fields in 2023 because of the quakes, which have damaged thousands of homes and created great uncertainty for locals over the years.
More than 1,600 earthquakes have hit the region since the 1980s, damaging 85,000 buildings.
A parliamentary commission said in 2023 that the interests of the people of Groningen were systematically ignored by both the government and oil companies, and that making money remained the dominant concern when natural gas extraction started causing earthquakes.