On Wednesday it will be 30 years since Roermond was hit by an earthquake. In the early morning of April 13, 1992, an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, the largest recorded earthquake in the Netherlands.
The earthquake in Roermond is the strongest measured natural earthquake that has ever occurred in the Netherlands. Many houses and buildings were damaged by the earthquake. Especially in the area between Roermond, Maaseik and Heinsberg there was a lot of damage.
severe quake
“The quake was felt as far as the Czech Republic, Switzerland, France and England,” says seismologist Läslo Evers of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). “At 5.8 on the Richter scale, it is one of the strongest earthquakes ever for even Northwest Europe.”
For a long time, the Uden earthquake (1932) was the most powerful earthquake ever.
Below you can see images of the damage after the earthquake in 1992:
Fractions
There are major fractures underground in Limburg, explains Evers. “The earthquake originated at the Peelrand Fault. At a depth of about 15 kilometers, fault surfaces shifted over each other and that caused the quake.” Still, despite the good construction of houses and buildings, the damage was extensive. For the Netherlands alone, the damage was estimated at approximately 170 million guilders (77 million euros).
Future
According to Evers, these kinds of earthquakes could still occur in the future. “Statistically, an earthquake of this magnitude occurs once every 50 to 100 years,” he says. “But that’s all statistics and therefore unplannable.”
gas extraction
Most natural earthquakes occur in the south of the Netherlands. In addition to natural earthquakes, induced earthquakes caused by gas extraction have regularly occurred in the Northern Netherlands since 1986. The largest induced earthquake in the Netherlands with a magnitude of 3.6 on the Richter scale was in Huizinge on August 16, 2012.