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Table 5 Summary of the 1946 event near Sierre

From: Historical intensity VIII earthquakes along the Rhone valley (Valais, Switzerland): primary and secondary effects

Location

Name

CHX

CHY

Lat.

Lon.

Sierre (VS)

597,025

133,180

46.35

7.4

Date/time (UTC)

January 25, 1946

05:32 p.m.

Intensity

Epicentral intensity (Io): VIII

Maximum intensity (Ix): VIII

Magnitude (Mw)

5.8

 

Effects

Primary: known

Secondary: large number known

Level of documentation

A damage assessment done after the earthquake is unfortunately not traceable. Only a few key data are known. Individual cases of damage or secondary effects thus rely mainly on contemporary publications

Remarks

Strong aftershock on May 30, 1946 (Io = VII, Ix = VII, Mw = 5.5) causing 4–5 million m3 rockfall at the Rawylhorn and many other secondary effects. Epicenter at 598,332/127,622 (46.3/7.417)

For historic sources and quotations see Online Resource 2 and Fritsche (2008)

References

Fritsche and Fäh 2009

Fritsche 2008

Roten 2007

  1. Location, date and time, intensity and magnitude are taken from ECOS-09 (Fäh et al. 2011a)