Projects

This page provides details of selected projects managed by or prominently featuring staff from the Swiss Seismological Service (SED). The list is not exhaustive; it merely covers selected key or large-scale projects.

EARTH-AID

EARTH-AID delivers GEODE, a trustworthy agentic AI that turns plain-language questions from experts and non-experts into local, uncertainty-aware impact assessments on top of DestinE-related Digital Twins (DTs). GEODE couples an generative AI interface (grounded in curated data lakes) with reasoning-and-planning and a probabilistic belief state, then actuates DT workflows and fast surrogate models to produce explainable maps, metrics, and recommendations in minutes. ...

National soil class mapping for Switzerland

Soil classification is one of the two essential foundations of seismic building codes. It simplifies the representation of local site amplification in elastic response spectra by grouping ...

TRANSFORM2

Near Fault Observatories (NFO) are natural laboratories undergoing active, and complex geophysical processes at, or in proximity to, densely populated urban areas. NFOs bound relatively small areas and are ideal sites for in-depth monitoring and advanced research. Six NFOs in Europe have been identified by the European Plate Observing System as long-term Research Infrastructures (including the Valais in Switzerland); three additional NFOs are in observer status. ...

GeoHEAT

GeoHEAT is set to transform how we explore geothermal energy by rethinking where we spend time and money. Instead of relying on expensive and often uncertain surface surveys, the project proposes two big shifts: cutting costs before drilling and getting much more value out of each well we drill. ...

GuateEW

Guatemala faces high seismic risk due to frequent seismic activity and the vulnerability of the building stock. Earthquake early warning (EEW) can reduce this risk by notifying people seconds before strong shaking arrives, giving them time to ...

GeoTwins

Deep geothermal energy (DGE) holds promise to become a widespread and abundant energy source for heating and power, representing a key technology in the transition to climate neutrality by 2050. ...

CITru

Das Pilot- und Demonstrationsprojekt CITru (CO2-Pilotinjektion in Trüllikon) prüft unter der Leitung der ETH Zürich die Machbarkeit eines CO2-Einspeisetests durch ein stillgelegtes Bohrloch der Nagra auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinde Trüllikon (ZH). ...

Detection, characterization and monitoring of instabilities with seismic technologies

In recent years, we have developed efficient geophysical and seismological measurement tools that enable the characterization of instabilities based on their vibrational behavior and are suitable ...

Opossum

The OPOSSUM project aims at the development and testing of accelerometers and acceleromter networks with the potential to outperform state of the art sensing technology. ...

DT-GEO

Catastrophic earthquakes, with their devastating and often unpredictable nature, can wreak havoc on socioeconomic stability. ...

Seconds matter

Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) can mitigate losses from earthquakes by providing seconds of advance notice to recipients so they can prepare for imminent damaging ground shaking. EEW is in operation in many countries across the globe, but currently no country in Europe offers a public system despite significant seismic risk. ...

Seismological research concerning Swiss nuclear installations

The forth phase of this project is split into 3 subtasks with the main goal to improve regional and local seismic hazard assessment in Switzerland; with particular focus to the sites of potential ...

Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs)

This is the 1st subproject of the “Seismological research concerning Swiss nuclear installations” project. This subproject aims to improve source-scaling and attenuation models and to develop methods for the prediction of strong ground motion in Switzerland both at the surface as well as at depth. ...

FEAR

Despite intensive research, scientists cannot predict exactly when and where the next major earthquake will occur. The ERC Synergy project "FEAR" aims at a better understanding of the physics of earthquake processes. To this aims, researchers will generate small earthquakes under controlled conditions at a depth of more than one kilometre and on a scale of ten to one hundred metres. ...

GHTnet

The Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich (SED) is collaborating with the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) to enhance seismic monitoring for the ...

BedrettoLab

The BedrettoLab is a unique research infrastructure run by ETH Zurich making it possible to take a close look at the Earth’s interior. It is located in the Swiss Alps 1.5 kilometres below the surface and in the middle of a 5.2 kilometres long tunnel. Equipped with the latest technology, the BedrettoLab offers ideal conditions to conduct experimental research focusing on the behaviour of the deep underground when accessing and stimulating it. Such access is required to advance scientific knowledge in various domains such as earthquake physics and predictability, geothermal energy, geobiology and technology developments. Currently, there are about 9 projects ongoing in the BedrettoLab. ETH Zurich studies, in close collaboration with national and international partners, techniques and procedures for a safe, efficient, and sustainable use of geothermal heat.