A small earthquake was reported in Limburg province on the night of Friday to Saturday, near the border with the Netherlands, the Royal Observatory of Belgium said. The quake was variously reportedly to have a strength of 3.1 to 3.7 on the Richter scale. No damage was reported, but local people reported feeling the movement. Two hours earlier, a quake of the same intensity had been felt in Gladbeck in Germany, 125km away.
The Limburg area in the east of Belgium is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, as a natural result of the movement of earth masses. However even then, such events are uncommon. The last earthquake in Belgium took place on 3 May at Spa, measuring only 0.7. Prior to that, a quake measuring 1.9 took place in early April in Waimes, further south in Liege province, in what claims to be the highest municipality in the country.
Several local people took to Twitter to report the quake. @Gwynne_Louisa reported, “My whole bedroom moved,” while @Ward_Bruggeman said “the whole area around Maaseik was shocked”. VRT weatherman Frank Deboosere advised anyone who had felt the effects to report the matter to the seismological enquiry carried out at the Observatory website.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
