Earthquake in the Netherlands

Posted on Sep 8, 2011 in News | 30 comments

Earthquake in the Netherlands

A rare earthquake rattled parts of the Netherlands shortly after 9 p.m. today.

“Everything here was shaking for about 5 to 6 seconds”, said a resident from Duiven (Gelderland).

The earthquake was also felt in northern Limburg, Maastricht, Arnhem and Hilversum. A resident from Hilversum reported that his greenhouse has been damaged by the shaking.

The KNMI reported that a magnitude 4.5 earthquake hit at 21:04 p.m. and the epicenter was about 40 km southeast of Nijmegen close to Xanten, Germany.

Many people were frightened by the earthquake. In Venlo, people panicked and ran into the streets.

The emergency line is flooding with calls right now,” Dutch police reported “People want to know what happened.

The earthquake took place at a depth of 7 km, which according to seismologists at KNMI is not deep. It is still unclear what caused the earthquake, but it seems to be a natural cause.

“The quake did not occur within the known fault lines,” said a spokeswoman.

The Netherlands never had earthquakes with devastating consequences, according to the KNMI. This is because the Netherlands is not at the edge of a tectonic plate. However a quake with a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale on April 13, 1992 in Roermond caused considerable damage.

Did you feel anything? let us know in the comments.

More at The Dutch Daily News

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  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Dutchie

    Felt it! My first tremor, since I was asleep during the last one in 1992. Must say it was awesome to know what it feels like. I can’t imagine anyone being hurt by this earthquake.

  • Cali

    I live in Almere and I actually felt it!! Just the tiniest of tremors for about 3 or 4 seconds, as if a heavy truck drove past my house, and not thinking about earthquakes I just thought … Ooo, what was that… .

  • Gizmo_nl

    I live in Hilversum and felt it too. Just watching tv and felt somthing. Did not know were it came from. Tought I dozed off and wake up.

  • Gizmo_nl

    I live in Hilversum and felt it too. Just watching tv and felt somthing. Did not know were it came from. Tought I dozed off and wake up.

  • Dutch Daily News

    Thanks for sharing! An earthquake of 4.5 is quite heavy for Dutch standards.

  • Zoebenda

    i lived in lochem Gelderland i felt it and my eyes were turning the flood shoke for 2 secound, was not thinking about quake but i knew that some thing strange was happing.

  • Sanny

    I live in The Hague and evenI felt it! I was watching something on my computer and my chair trembled for a bit, I thought it must have been a truck outside, but thought that couldn’t be because I’ve never felt this, very weird.

  • Girl

    I’m in The Hague, and we felt it! the sofa was shaking very lightly for a few secs. I thought it was me going crazy until i heard about the earthquake haha!

  • Amy

    Our house had one big shake; it was like a sonic boom sound and then it was over. Nothing to be scared about. My husband and I looked at each other and I said “I think that was an earthquake.” I then looked at my laptops time and it said 8:03 so we noted it and went on with our activities. We live in Moordrecht.

  • Kirsten

    Yes we felt it in Velp – Gld. We originally come from New Zealand so knew exactly what it was as we have lived in Wellington New Zealand and there we had quakes regularly. Last night we even had a guess at the Richter scale rating and my daughter guessed correctly with 4.5 and I guessed 4.9. It was a very mild one with quite a bit of noise.

  • shaking

    Whole building was shaking in Utrecht

  • shaking

    Whole building was shaking in Utrecht

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  • LOL

    oh ya der aye