Yesterday, 19:22 • 3 minutes reading time
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There was an earthquake in Loppersum on Friday evening with a magnitude of 2.7 on the Richter scale. People who felt the quake speak of a ‘heavy blow’ or an ‘explosion’.
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According to the KNMI, the quake happened at 7:11 p.m. Zeerijp was first reported as the epicenter, but that was later adjusted to Loppersum. Last month the epicenter of a earthquake with a magnitude of 2.1 was in Zeerijp.
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‘The dog was shocked to death’
Dozens of people from Groningen felt the earth vibrate at that moment. Jolanda from Zeerijp speaks of a ‘very hard thump and violent vibrations. Everything in the house was shaking. The dog was shocked too.’
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–Her fellow villager Gerard Kuilman calls the experience ‘frightening’. He was just sitting down to watch TV when the blow comes. “First the sound of a big explosion, one second of silence, then you heard the creaking and the whole house shook. Even the floor beneath our feet. It seemed as if the epicenter was under our house. This was very intense. The dog immediately jumped off the rug with four legs and started barking.’
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His wife Annet Waringa was in the kitchen at the time of the quake. ‘It was as if the floor was being pulled away from under me. You are very scared. I was really shaking in my chair. And we’ve already had so much damage. It just remains restless.’
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Checking new damage tomorrow
After a period when the bottom seemed to settle down, this quake hits Kuilman all the harder. ‘It gives you a bad feeling, that insecurity.’ He has not yet checked whether new damage has occurred. “That will come tomorrow.”
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Kuilman no longer has any confidence in the solution to the earthquake problem, he says. ‘Three years ago they carried out a damage assessment here using the most modern means. The report came in seven weeks ago. A scrap, cut-and-paste. Under new guidelines, they saw no need to fortify the house. There were only some cracks in the beams.’
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‘Like a bomb exploded underground’
Marjolein from Oldenzijl was also frightened by the quake. “Everything in the house was shaking and something fell over in the garden,” she reports.
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The description of an ‘explosion’ regularly appears in the reactions to the quake. John Terpstra from Wirdum writes: ‘As if a bomb exploded underground. The house was going back and forth a bit.’
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Lots of comments on social media
The State Supervision of Mines (SodM) also reports on the quake, which occurred ‘after a relatively quiet month in Groningen’.
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Reactions to the quake are also pouring in among Groningers on social media:
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Update: The message has been supplemented with more reactions and the tweet from the SodM. The epicenter has also been adjusted. The KNMI initially reported Zeerijp, but that was adjusted to Loppersum.
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