Near-record amount of earthquakes noted in Switzerland in 2023
Around 1,500 earthquakes were recorded in the country and close to its borders last year, the second-highest annual figure after 2019.
Most of the quakes were traced to earthquake sequences close to the Swiss border, such as at Singen in southern Germany, Sierentz in France and Courmayeur in northern Italy, the Swiss Seismological Service said on Wednesday.
Most were too weak to be felt by the population, said the earthquake service, which is based at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich on Wednesday.
+ How the Swiss Seismological Service tries to predict quakes in real time
Last year was characterised by several earthquake sequences in which numerous tremors occurred locally over a few days or even months. The three strongest quakes resulted from these sequences.
The strongest, with a magnitude of 4.3, was noted on March 22 in Haute Ajoie near Réclère in the western canton of Jura. This was the strongest quake in this region in the last 100 years. The tremors were clearly felt in the Jura and the entire western midlands, while isolated reports were also reports from Lausanne, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich.
Last year, there were also several earthquakes which were clearly felt despite their smaller magnitude. According to the Seismological Service, this is usually due to a combination of shallow depth, amplification effects of the local subsoil and other topographical influences, as well as the timing of the earthquake.
Translated from German by DeepL/dos
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