Friedeburg is a municipality in the district of Wittmund, in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. It is situated approximately 14 km southeast of Wittmund, and 20 km west of

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...

. About 4 kilometers east of the main village of Friedeburg, near the small village named Etzel, one of Europe's largest

salt dome A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when salt (or other evaporite minerals) intrudes into overlying rocks in a process known as diapirism. Salt domes can have unique surface and subsurface structures, and they can be discovered usi ...

s is located. This geological feature is part of the 240 million years old

Zechstein Group The Zechstein ( German either from ''mine stone'' or ''tough stone'') is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Middle to Late Permian (Guadalupian to Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of Engla ...

formations. The salt dome, with a volume of 46 million cubic metres, houses important natural gas storages and crude oil storages. In February, 2022, the government of Lower Saxony decided to subsidize the realization of

underground hydrogen storage Underground hydrogen storage is the practice of hydrogen storage in caverns, salt domes and depleted oil/gas fields. Large quantities of gaseous hydrogen have been stored in caverns for many years. The storage of large quantities of hydrogen un ...

s there as well.

References

Towns and villages in East Frisia Wittmund (district) {{Wittmund-geo-stub