All Natural Hazards at a Glance on One Government App

In contrast to other natural hazards, advance warning of an earthquake is not possible. In principle, earthquakes can occur anytime and anywhere. The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) will publish on both the MeteoSwiss App and natural-hazards.ch the likely effects for each warning area of earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or greater. Warning areas close to the location of the earthquake (epicenter) will be accorded a higher danger level than those further away. The danger levels refer to the intensity of the earthquake in a specific warning area. The intensity is a measure of the effects of an earthquake. In addition, some danger levels contain a rough estimate of the likelihood of aftershocks. You can find a detailed explanation of the danger levels here.

The automatically generated earthquake notifications will generally be available within a few minutes and serve primarily to immediately inform the population, media, and authorities of potentially noticeable earthquakes in Switzerland. The SED seismologists on duty check each of these notifications for accuracy after they have been sent out automatically and will, on rare occasions, make minor corrections. With an automatic system, there is unfortunately also the chance of false alarms. For this reason, earthquake notifications are displayed directly on the hazard map, but not sent as push notifications.

An overview of all available SED information channels in case of an event can be found under the heading Informed at Any Time.

Press release issued by the Federal agencies with responsibility for natural hazards on the extended MeteoSwiss App (in German)

MeteoSwiss App: Google Play – App Store – Windows Store