‘We thought it was a plane crash’: magnitude 3.9 earthquake hits Nîmes
Tremors felt throughout suburbs as epicentre only 8km from city
Nobody was injured but the earthquake caused vibrations and buildings to shake
vchal/Shutterstock / Nîmes tourisme
Residents in Nîmes report being frightened and confused after feeling the tremors from a magnitude 3.9 earthquake on Saturday morning (December 13).
The earthquake impacted the city and surrounding areas of the Gard department at around 10:40. The epicentre was just 8km east of Nîmes city centre.
Nobody was injured but the earthquake caused vibrations and buildings to shake.
“We thought it was a plane crash. The walls of the locker rooms and the refreshment stand shook. We were all astonished,” said one spectator of a local football match to media outlet Midi Libre.
“I was on the sofa and I felt like someone was shaking it for 2 or 3 seconds,” said another.
The tremors were felt more closely in the suburb of Marguerittes, around 1km from the epicentre.
“It sounded like something exploded,” said one resident of the suburb.
“It was frankly impressive… I was scared,” said another, with a third resident telling France 3 that in the bakery opposite his house “everything fell to the floor.”
Others mentioned how their houses shook during the initial quake.
Earthquakes are not uncommon in area
France experiences thousands of earthquakes every year, although most are so small they go unnoticed.
Larger quakes are felt a few times per year, but rarely cause damage or injury. They are more noticeable when epicentres are close to a major urban area.
Indeed, authorities reporting on Saturday’s earthquake said Nîmes sits on the border of two earthquake zones.
“The affected area is classified as having a low to moderate seismic risk… so this phenomenon is typical, even if rare,” said the Gard prefecture.
A map of the areas most at risk of earthquakes, and an explainer of how geography impacts this risk, can be found in our article here.
