Video recordings document this impressive event, but fortunately, no one was injured. However, the seismic stations also recorded the tremors caused by the landslide, even at distances well over 100 kilometres. In contrast to earthquakes, seismograms of mass movements are comparatively long-lasting and are characterised by a broad distribution of seismic energy. They also lack the clear, impulsive phase arrivals typical of earthquakes. This makes the exact location of a mass movement very uncertain using only the seismic information; it can deviate several kilometres from the true location. However, the origin time of mass movements can be determined to the second.

Only mass movement events that are clearly visible in the seismic data are listed in the newly published SED database. The list of events is therefore incomplete: smaller or slow-moving mass movements or those that occur in areas with poor coverage of the seismic network are not detected. Furthermore, the identification of mass movements is carried out manually, so new events may only be added days after they occur. Some events are externally confirmed and indicated as ‘confirmed’ in the last column of the list. The magnitude is purely indicative and calculated using the scale defined for local Swiss earthquakes. The list of mass movements dates back to 2009 and will continue to be updated.

More information

List of mass movements

Hands-on earthquake research in the classroom 

Since they were installed, the seismometers at cantonal schools and high schools have been continuously recording the earth's movements. That also includes the tremors from local quakes such as the one on 27 February near Saignelégier (canton of Jura) with a magnitude of 3.4. Students can access the data recorded on their own devices as well as over 2,000 Raspberry Shake seismometers installed worldwide in real time via the Raspberry Shake website. The data is presented in an easy-to-understand way, making it easy to pinpoint the epicentre of an earthquake, for example, as part of a lesson. This allows pupils to gain practical insights into the world of earthquake research and deepen their understanding of various seismological concepts.

The Seismo@School programme

The Seismo@School initiative has its origins in a programme launched by the University of Lausanne and HES-SO Valais-Wallis in recent years, in which 22 schools in the cantons of Valais and Vaud are involved. Thanks to a two-year AGORA project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) entitled "Increasing earthquake awareness in Switzerland", the SED has now been able to extend this programme to the whole of Switzerland.

The long-term vision of the project is a Switzerland-wide Seismo@School programme that includes multilingual teaching materials, regular activities for teachers and international partnerships. This initiative is a major step in promoting earthquake preparedness and knowledge among young people, which will ultimately help ensure that society is better able to cope with earthquakes in the future.

Resources for teachers

In the coming months, the Seismo@School team will be developing, and making freely available, school materials covering specific seismology topics: earthquake hazard and risk, induced seismicity, misinformation and media literacy, and earthquake measurement and localisation. From spring semester 2025, geography teachers will also be offered an annual training day on the new teaching materials. There is also a digital learning hub "CoP Geography" on Microsoft Teams, where teachers can network and share helpful materials. Interested teachers can email the Seismo@School project team at: seismo_at_school[at]sed.ethz.ch.

For additional information

Project description
CPPS project web page: www.cpps-vs.ch/seismo-at-school

Starting with the exploration phase (installation of the drilling site, sinking of the borehole, test stimulations), baseline monitoring will help to detect any earthquakes near the project site and make it possible to distinguish between natural earthquakes and those caused by the project. The SED will publish the recorded data in real time at this page, providing the Canton, the public, the media and also the project operator with up-to-date information. In addition, the SED will alert the Canton and the operator immediately in the event of earthquakes near the project site.

This baseline monitoring will be of most use in the geothermal project's exploration and stimulation phase (not yet authorized). In the enhanced geothermal system (EGS) solution that will be rolled out in Haute-Sorne, the permeability of existing crack networks in the geological underground will be increased by injecting highly pressurised water to trigger a large number of small earthquakes. While EGS projects are already contributing to heat and energy generation in some places, they have also triggered felt earthquakes in others. In fact, there was one case where it has been suggested that these earthquakes were strong enough to cause substantial damage (see news article on the earthquake in Pohang, South Korea).

In Haute-Sorne, the operater Geo-Energie Jura wants to prevent felt or even damaging earthquakes from occurring with a comprehensive risk analysis, continuously updated models based on newly acquired data and its patented, multi-stage stimulation method. It plans, as part of this process, to stimulate only a limited volume of rock at a time in a number of separate stimulation phases and to gradually create a geothermal reservoir of the appropriate size. This procedure differs from the one-step, mass stimulation strategy adopted, for example, for the EGS projects in Basel in 2006 and Pohang in 2017. The multi-stage stimulation solution has already been successfully tested on a smaller scale in ETH Zurich's BedrettoLab. While there is some risk of felt earthquakes during the Haute-Sorne project's subsequent construction phase (hydraulic stimulation), these are very unlikely to occur during the drilling phase that is about to start. According to the operator, the first test stimulation is not planned to take place until winter 2024/2025.

The baseline monitoring provided by the SED is regulated by an agreement with the Canton of Jura and funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy-financed GEOBEST2020+ project. Alongside this baseline monitoring, Geo-Energie Jura operates its own stations to locate even smaller earthquakes, particularly during the stimulation phase, and so monitor the development of the geothermal reservoir. Although this phase is planned, it has not yet been authorized.

Further information on the seismic monitoring of the Haute-Sorne geothermal project can be found on the following pages:

Project overview

Natural seismicity in the region

Seismic monitoring

List of earthquakes

Real-time seismograms

Das letzte, etwas grössere Ereignis in dieser Region, ereignete sich im Oktober 2021 mit einer Magnitude von 4.1 etwa 5 km südlich von Arolla (VS). Der Erdbebenherd lag damals in etwas geringerer Tiefe, verglichen mit dem heutigen Beben. Aufgrund der geringeren Tiefe wären kleinere Schäden nahe dem Epizentrum vereinzelt möglich gewesen. Allerdings ist die Region sehr dünn besiedelt und es wurden dem Schweizerischen Erdbebendienst keine Schäden gemeldet.