Earthquake near Zug

On Saturday, February 11 2012, at 11.45pm an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 occurred between Zuger- and Ägerisee at a depth of approximately 30 km. The earthquake has widely been felt in large parts of German-speaking Switzerland, the Bernese Jura and all the way to the Tessin. There are few reports about minor damages (fissures in walls and ceilings), however such damages are expected to be exceptional. 

One small aftershock of magnitude 1.1 occurred on February 14 at 19:15. The aftershock wasn't strong enough to be felt. Until Wednesday afternoon no further aftershocks have been recorded.

More information on the earthquake near Zug are available at SED aktuell.

Have you felt the earthquakes? Please report it.

SF media report.

_12.02.2012

Another earthquake in northern Italy

On Friday, 27 January, at 15:53 local time, the earth shook again in northern Italy. The earthquake with magnitude 5.4 occurred between Parma and La Spezia, currently it is estimated that the source was at a depth of 60 km.

The quake was a bit stronger and deeper than the one of 25 January, and therefore was felt more strongly and in a larger area also in Switzerland. Earthquakes of this magnitude are not unusual for this region.

Most probably there is no direct connection between this event and the one of 25 January, both are, however, related to the tectonic situation in the region of the Po-plane.

Further information is available on the website of INGV and the website of EMS.

_27.01.2012

Earthquake in northern Italy

On the 25th of January 2012 at 09:06 an earthquake of magnitude about 5 occurred in Italy, northeast of Parma. The event was strongly felt in northern Italy, and was also felt in large parts of Switzerland, particularly in the Ticino.

So far there are no reports about damage from this earthquake.

Further information is available on the website of INGV and the website of EMS.

_25.01.2012

Change at the Head of the Swiss Seismological Service

To the turn of the year professor Domenico Giardini stepped back from the leadership of the SED. Until a permanent replacement is in place the Executive Board of the ETH nominated Stefan Wiemer as ad interim director of the SED.

_01.2012

Earthquakes in Switzerland in 2011: a review

The Swiss Seismological Service manually located more than 500 earthquakes in Switzerland and the neighboring areas in 2011. The magnitudes of the events vary between 0.1 and 3.3 (local Richter magnitude). Even though the total number of registered earthquakes was higher than for the last three years, the earthquake activity in Switzerland and the neighboring regions in 2011 is comparatively low. While in the previous 36 years on average 24 earthquakes with magnitude 2.5 or higher occurred, only 10 such events were recorded last year. One has to go as far back to 1981 to find a year where the strongest earthquake had a smaller magnitude than in 2011. 

Only three earthquakes were clearly felt: the two largest events in the sequence close to Sierre at the beginning of January 2011 (magnitude 3.3 and 3.2), and one close to Delémont (magnitude 3.1) between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The Sierre earthquakes were part of a sequence of 31 earthquakes that continued throughout the year, with 16 events occurring during the first five hours of the sequence. With a depth of 31 km the event near Bregenz on 27th January with magnitude 3.3 was so deep that it was barely felt by the public. As in former years the majority of earthquakes occurred in Valais and Grisons, while an elevated activity was also observed in Ticino. 

The earthquake activity in 2011 does not suggest predictions for 2012 - during the first two days of the New Year, two felt events (magnitudes 3.2 and 3.5) occurred near Filisur, Grisons. In 2012, we will continue to supply the public with real-time earthquake information on our website, and wish you a tremor-free 2012!

Small earthquake sequence close to Filisur GR

The Swiss Seismological Service registered since New Year's Day a series of small earthquakes northeast of Filisur, GR. The strongest earthquakes so far had a magnitude of 3.2 (1th January, 16:33 Swiss time) and 3.5 (2th January, 02:42). Both earthquakes were clearly felt by some people. Until the evening of 3th January the SED recorded 7 earthquakes in close proximity. The depth of the sources is not well constrained. The similarity of the recorded signals suggests, however, that all sources are located at approximately the same depth between 5 and 10 km below sea level, similar to previous earthquakes in this region.

For this region such earthquake sequences are not unusual. At this moment it can not be determined whether this sequence will continue for months as the ones in Sertig (2003) or Paspels (2007 - 2009) or if it will stop in the next few days.

The probability that a larger earthquake may occur in the near future is not significantly enhanced by this sequence.

The last stronger earthquake (magnitude 5) occurred in November 1991 in Vaz and caused slight damage to some buildings.

Even if stronger earthquakes (magnitude 5 to 6) happen only very rarely in Switzerland they may in principle occur anywhere anytime.

Have you felt one of the recent earthquakes? Please report it.

SF media report.

_01.2012