Two earthquakes occurred in a short time in the north of Groningen on Saturday afternoon. Around 12.20 pm there was an earthquake in the municipality of Het Hogeland, near Uithuizen, with a magnitude of 2.7 on the Richter scale. About an hour later, a second magnitude 1.7 quake hit the same area reports the KNMI. A total of 5 minor earthquakes occurred in the province this month. According to the Groningen Safety Region, the quake has again caused damage to houses.
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In recent weeks, several quakes have been reported with Uithuizen as the epicenter. For example, on September 9, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale, one with a magnitude of 1.3 on August 28, and a third with a magnitude of 1.9 on August 19. The strongest earthquake to date was in August 2012, Huizinge. That quake had a magnitude of 3.6.
On Twitter, the quakes are described as two “hard bangs” that could be felt well. Earthquakes are more frequent in this area as a result of gas extraction in the Groningen gas field, one of the largest gas fields in the world. The extraction of natural gas has played a major role in the Dutch energy supply since 1963.