Gas quakes anger farmers

NETHERLANDS: Farmers living atop Europe's largest gas field in the isolated northern Netherlands are angry at increasingly frequent earthquakes caused by extraction.

Freezing winds and a glimmer of cold light pass through the three-foot by two-inch (one metre by five centimetre) crack in Martha and Jan Bos's stable in Middelstum, a few miles (kilometres) from the Netherlands' most northern point.

Their farmhouse, built in the early 20th century, has around 15 large cracks and part of the floor inside the entrance has dropped around three inches.

Their home in the northern province of Groningen is built on top of the biggest gas field in the EU, which gives the Netherlands -- the world's 10th-biggest gas producer -- two-thirds of its gas. There were 110 earthquakes here between 1991 and 2000, SoDM figures say, but the frequency has risen more than six-fold to hit 500 between 2000 and 2013.

AFP