Overnight earthquake in Germany felt in large areas of Switzerland
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 on the Richter scale was felt throughout Switzerland in the early hours on Thursday, according to the Swiss Seismological Service.
The earthquake was registered in Germany, around 18km northwest of Laufenburg in canton Aargau, shortly after 3am, according to the organisation’s website. More than 1,200 reports were received during the night, the Seismological Service said in response to an enquiry from the Keystone-SDA news agency.
In some cases, the earthquake was noted up to 100km away from its epicentre. Minor damage is sometimes possible near the epicentre of an earthquake of this magnitude.
+ Read more: how the Swiss Seismological Service tries to predict quakes in real time
The last noticeable earthquake in this area, with a magnitude of 3.1, was recorded in 2018, the Seismological Service added. It said that earthquakes were not unusual in this region.
In Switzerland, around 1,000 earthquakes are recorded each year as the number of seismometers increases. This year, there have already been 866.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp
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