The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich is the federal agency for earthquakes. Its activities are integrated in the federal action plan for earthquake mitigation.
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Help, the earth is shaking! What to do in case of an incident?
Felt Earthquakes in Switzerland
|
Local Time |
Mag. |
Location |
Felt? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-11-30 12:01 | 1.9 | Sanetschpass VS | Slightly felt |
| 2022-11-28 00:12 | 2.5 | Leukerbad VS | Felt |
| 2022-11-13 22:20 | 2.2 | Thonon-les-Bains F | Probably not felt |
| 2022-11-13 17:33 | 2.5 | Chamonix F | Probably not felt |
| 2022-11-07 11:10 | 2.5 | Courmayeur I | Probably not felt |
| 2022-11-07 10:43 | 2.4 | Courmayeur I | Probably not felt |
| 2022-11-01 17:04 | 3.4 | Bellegarde-sur-Valserine F | Probably not felt |
Latest Earthquakes
|
Local Time |
Magnitude |
Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-12-01 13:50 | 1.8 | Schluchsee D |
| 2022-12-01 00:12 | 1.3 | Zweisimmen BE |
| 2022-11-30 12:01 | 1.9 | Sanetschpass VS |
| 2022-11-29 16:41 | 1.6 | Sierre VS |
Recent earthquakes magnitude 4.5 or greater
|
Time (UTC) |
Mag. |
Region |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-11-29 23:46:05 | 4.6 | GREECE |
| 2022-11-29 20:06:39 | 5.1 | AEGEAN SEA |
| 2022-11-29 04:32:39 | 4.5 | Aegean Sea |
| 2022-11-27 03:57:47 | 4.6 | Turkey |
| 2022-11-26 20:09:36 | 4.6 | Dodecanese Islands, Greece |
| 2022-11-24 00:31:57 | 4.9 | JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION |
| 2022-11-23 22:00:18 | 4.8 | Jan Mayen Island Region |
| 2022-11-23 17:04:30 | 5.2 | Norwegian Sea |
| 2022-11-23 03:51:00 | 4.6 | Turkey |
| 2022-11-23 01:08:14 | 6.0 | WESTERN TURKEY |
| 2022-11-20 23:25:00 | 5.4 | CRETE, GREECE |
| 2022-11-13 02:08:11 | 4.7 | Crete, Greece |
| 2022-11-10 17:54:13 | 4.5 | CENTRAL ITALY |
Recent earthquakes magnitude 6 or greater
|
UTC Time |
Magnitude |
Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-11-23 01:08:14 | 6.0 | WESTERN TURKEY |
| 2022-11-22 16:39:06 | 6.2 | Baja California, Mexico |
| 2022-11-22 02:37:58 | 6.0 | Bougainville - Solomon Islands region |
| 2022-11-22 02:03:08 | 7.0 | Bougainville - Solomon Islands region |
| 2022-11-18 13:37:06 | 6.9 | Southwest of Sumatera, Indonesia |
| 2022-11-14 08:08:27 | 6.1 | Near south coast of eastern Honshu, Japan |
| 2022-11-14 08:07:32 | 6.5 | Southeast of Shikoku, J |
| 2022-11-14 05:04:12 | 6.1 | South of Fiji Islands |
2022-10-14
[Available in DE] Earthquake close to Triesenberg (FL)
![[Available in DE] Earthquake close to Triesenberg (FL)](/export/sites/sedsite/about-us/.galleries/img_news_2022/20221014_Triesenberg_Shake_map.PNG_2063069299.png "[Available in DE] Earthquake close to Triesenberg (FL)")
Am Freitag, dem 14. Oktober 2022 hat sich um 17:33 Uhr (Lokalzeit) bei Triesenberg (FL) südöstlich von Vaduz in einer Tiefe von ungefähr 2 km ein Erdbeben der Magnitude 3.1 ereignet.
Die Erschütterungen waren vorwiegend im Gebiet um Triesenberg, aber auch in Triesen, Vaduz, Schaan und Balzers gut zu spüren. Zudem haben Personen aus weiteren Gemeinden, vorwiegend im Rheintal im Umkreis von ca. 10 km, das Beben wahrgenommen. Bis eine Stunde nach dem Erdbeben sind beim Schweizerischen Erdbebendienst (SED) an der ETH Zürich über 300 Meldungen aus der Bevölkerung eingegangen. Bei einem Erdbeben dieser Stärke sind in der Regel keine Schäden zu erwarten.
Das Beben gehört zu einer Serie von Erdbeben bei Triesenberg, deren bisher grösstes am 01. September 2022 stattfand und eine Magnitude von 3.9 aufwies (siehe Aktuell-Beitrag vom 01.09.2022). Das Beben wurde damals von einigen spürbaren Vor- und Nachbeben begleitet. Weitere Erdbeben in den nächsten Stunden und Tagen sind nicht auszuschliessen, die Wahrscheinlichkeit von deutlich grösseren Beben mit Schadenfolgen ist jedoch klein.
2022-10-04
20 seismic stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina contribute to the initiative “AdriaArray”
The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich is now part of a new European initiative called AdriaArray. The international collaboration with teams across Europe aims to seek answers to fundamental questions related to plate geodynamics and the deformation of the Adriatic Plate. This microplate stretches throughout Eastern Italy and borders Switzerland and Austria, and goes all along the coast of the Balkan countries to Greece. Millions of years ago, the collision of the Adriatic and Eurasian plates led to the formation of the Alps. Up to now, the Adriatic Microplate constantly rotates counterclockwise against the Eurasian plate, which is the cause of many earthquakes in the Mediterranean region.
In the framework of the AdriaArray initiative, the research groups will apply different methods to unravel the structure of the crust, lower lithosphere, and upper mantle in the next four years. These efforts will increase the understanding of the European lithosphere's development which is particularly complex in the Mediterranean region due to the arrangement of the various microplates. To this end, a dense temporary network of seismic stations will soon cover the entire Adriatic plate in south-eastern Europe, providing data about the earth's movements. The SED contributes to this project by operating 20 broad-band temporary stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the SED group deployed this summer together with local colleagues from Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The AdriaArray initiative can be seen as a follow-up to the successful multidisciplinary AlpArray project that started in 2016. After the project's end in 2019, AlpArray has moved beyond the seismological experiment to a stage where the wealth of new data is being interpreted and debated. All the insights from this previous research will continue and further grow in the next four years of the AdriaArray's initiative.
2022-09-25
Earthquake felt near Vallorcine (F)
An earthquake of magnitude 3.7 was observed near Vallorcine (France, close to the Swiss border), at a depth of about 6 kilometers on Sunday morning, September 27, at 8:18 local time.
In Switzerland, the earthquake was felt mainly in the region of Martigny, partly also in other settlements of the Rhone valley and its southern tributary valleys. The Swiss Seismological Service has received about 100 felt reports within the first hour after the event. In case of an earthquake of this magnitude, no damage are expected, nor was reported.
The region of Vallorcine is regularly hit by small earthquakes, among which felt ones nearly every year. The largest events happened on September 8, 2005 (magnitude 4.9) and June 23, 2020 (magnitude 3.8).
Meteorites frequently collide with Mars, creating its distinctive cratered landscape. This is because the Red Planet, compared to Earth, has a thin atmosphere and is closer to the asteroid belt in our solar system. Now, as part of NASA's InSight mission, with input from the Marsquake Service and ETH Zurich, researchers have been able to record the impacts of four meteorites using the seismometer on board the mission's spacecraft. These are the first measurements of ground tremors caused by such impacts on Mars.
The key to the discovery was a meteorite that penetrated the Martian atmosphere on 5 September 2021. Upon entry it split into at least three parts, which left craters when they hit the planet's surface. The craters are located in the area of Elysium Planitia, approximately 100 km from the InSight station, confirmed in a flight by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The three impacts and the resulting pressure waves produced tremors that show up clearly in the seismic data. The researchers then analysed earlier seismic recordings again and discovered three more meteorite impacts. They suspect that other impacts have also occurred in the past, but these are hidden in the background noise of the seismic signals. This noise is caused by strong winds and seasonal changes in the atmosphere.
Meteorite impacts on the surface of Mars reveal a lot about the history of the Red Planet. By tracing how often craters of different sizes are created, it is possible to determine retrospectively how and over what period the present-day Martian surface formed. Drawing on satellite images as well, the trajectory of a meteorite and the size of the shock wave triggered can also be reconstructed. The findings are set out in a recent article in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Knowledge
Earthquake Country Switzerland
Switzerland experiences between 1'000 and 1'500 earthquakes a year. Swiss citizens actually feel somewhere between 10 and 20 quakes a year, usually those with a magnitude of 2.5 or above. Based on the long-term average, 23 quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or above occur every year. Find out more about the natural hazards with the greatest damage-causing potential in Switzerland.
Knowledge
Earthquake Hazard
In Switzerland, earthquakes are the natural hazard with the greatest potential for causing damage. They cannot currently be prevented or reliably predicted. But, thanks to extensive research, much is now known about how often and how intensely the earth could shake at a given location in the future. Consult a variety of different maps using our interactive web tool to find out how likely certain earthquakes are in Switzerland.
About Us
Swiss Seismological Service (SED)
The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich is the federal agency responsible for monitoring earthquakes in Switzerland and its neighboring countries and for assessing Switzerland’s seismic hazard. When an earthquake happens, the SED informs the public, authorities, and the media about the earthquake’s location, magnitude, and possible consequences. The activities of the SED are integrated in the federal action plan for earthquake mitigation.
Earthquakes
Earthquake Monitoring
Around 10 to 20 times a year you will hear or read about an earthquake occurring in Switzerland. However, the vast majority of quakes recorded by the SED go unnoticed by the general public because they fall below the threshold of human perception and can only be detected by sensitive measuring devices. The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) operates a network of more than 200 seismic stations across Switzerland.
