Scientists to trigger artificial earthquakes in Ticino

The experiment is set to begin on Monday. Keystone-SDA

Researchers are preparing to create artificial quakes in an underground lab in Bedretto, in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Scientists have been injecting water for several days into a faultline between two layers of rock at the BedrettoLab, a research facility in the former Bedretto construction gallery of the Furka tunnel, operated by the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.

The aim is to set the boulders in motion and trigger an earthquake. For the experiment, researchers are gradually increasing pressure until an earthquake of magnitude 1 occurs, or until 2,000 cubic metres of water have been injected into the rock.

Set off in Zurich

According to risk assessments, a magnitude 1 quake is unlikely to cause any significant damage, says the project website. However, “very minor” damage in the vicinity of the experiment is possible. Major damage to the tunnels would only be expected at magnitude of 2.5. The probability of this happening is estimated at around 1%.

According to the researchers, the probability of an earthquake causing damage outside the Bedretto tunnel is 1 in 10,000 – much lower than the probability of a natural earthquake occurring during the same period being felt or causing damage.

Nevertheless, nobody will be in the tunnel during the experiment, which is to be triggered remotely from Zurich.

Predicting earthquakes

By taking measurements directly at the origin of an earthquake, the researchers hope to answer some fundamental questions. In particular, they want to know what happens immediately before an earthquake and what puts an end to such an event.

The researchers hope the data will make it possible to improve earthquake predictions, for which no reliable method has been found, despite decades of research.

“Since we don’t have time to wait for an earthquake to occur again in exactly the right place, we are triggering it ourselves,” said Stefan Wiemer from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Seismological Service, at a presentation last September.

The project, “Fault Activation and Earthquake Rupture” (FEAR), is the beneficiary of €14 million (CHF12.9 million) in funding from the European Research Council (ERC).

Adapted from French by AI/dos

How we work 

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]