This Saturday, September 10, 2022 around 6 p.m., an earthquake shook the Alsatian soil. With a magnitude of 4.8, it was felt in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, but also in Switzerland and Germany.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8 on the Richter scale surprised many and many Alsatians on Saturday September 10, 2022 at 5:58 p.m. The precise magnitude should be refined in the coming hours.
Contrary to what we previously announced, the epicenter of the earthquake is not to the northwest of Mulhouse, but rather to the southeast, towards Basel. It would be located 8 kilometers from Mulhouse, in the Kembs sector (Haut-Rhin).
Much of Alsace was affected by the earthquake, which was felt in many municipalities. On Twitter, many Internet users expressed their amazement after feeling the strong tremor: “We were a little scared”, writes a resident of Mulhouse.
“At first I thought there had been a huge gust of windexplains Timo, a resident of Saint-Louis, in the Haut-Rhin. But looking out the window, I realized that wasn’t it.”
On Facebook, a resident of Haguenau, yet an hour and a half from the epicenter writes: “The roof of my store shook, as did the computer screens.” Many Alsatians speak of a “big boom”.
“I was scared, everything shook. A big boom. I thought something had exploded”says a Facebook user. “I wondered if I was going crazy but no!”, wrote another. On Twitter, some are even disappointed to have felt nothing: “I missed my very first earthquake, I have rage”, laughs a twittos.
It looked like a plane was falling.
A resident of Kembs (Haut-Rhin)
Witnesses talk about “a muffled noise of 2 to 3 seconds”but also vibrations and a rumble: “It looked like a plane was going down, and then there were vibrations in the house.” A resident of Bartenheim explains that he was sleeping when he felt his house shaking.
The tremors were also felt in the Territoire de Belfort and in much of northern Franche-Comté. According to France’s national seismicity information site, two aftershocks were recorded in the minutes that followed, at 6:08 p.m. and 6:31 p.m.
The Bas-Rhin fire and rescue service (SIS 67) received several calls, but none responded to an intervention. They invite don’t call them only in case of emergency so as not to overload the telephone lines.
The mayor of Mulhouse Michèle Lutz confirms that there is, for the time being, no victim or damage in her municipality: “There was a little wind of panic, which is normal. But we remain vigilant, with the sub-prefecture, the police and the firefighters.” The Haut-Rhin firefighters did not identify any damage either.
The last earthquake felt in the area took place on July 9, 2022. Its epicenter was in Germany.