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A magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook the Semmering region on Friday evening. The shallow depth of the lesion significantly increased the impact.
Gloggnitz – Before dawn this Friday (July 24), measuring instruments registered a seismic event of magnitude 4.5 in the border area between Lower Austria and Styria. According to the Austrian seismic service GeoSphere Austria, the incident occurred at 1:59 a.m., with its epicenter located about eight kilometers southwest of Gloggnitz. The tremors spread across a wide region and were reported by tens of thousands of people simultaneously. What was especially striking was the close proximity of the hypocenter to the earth’s surface.
The region around Semmering is prone to earthquakes. © Tobias Steinmaurer/IMAGo
Instead of the usual eight to ten kilometers for Austrian conditions, the center of the earthquake was only four kilometers from the surface. This unusual flatness resulted in a more spatially concentrated energy discharge and explained the intense sensitivity of the affected population. Residents reported severe shaking, falling objects and loud booms near the epicentral zone. Such phenomena are typical for near-surface earthquakes, seismologist Anton Vogelmann confirmed in an interview with the publication. noe.ORF.at.
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Reports came from eastern Lower Austria, Styria, and sometimes from Vienna and Tullnerfeld. Model calculations from erdbebennews.de it is said that about 5.6 million people could potentially feel the earthquake. “I wondered who was rocking me,” the resident said on Facebook. Another heard tremors in the bedroom.
According to Vogelmann, people close to the epicenter heard an explosive explosion, but those further away perceived the event as a dull roar. This is based on different frequencies of seismic waves. The destruction of rock initially generates high-frequency vibrations that quickly weaken over large distances. Low frequencies remain – the typical rumbling, heard for many kilometers.
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On the connecting route between Schottwien and Breitenstein, pieces of stone came out of the rock and stopped on the road. The State Warning Center of Lower Austria coordinated the emergency services; Firefighters promptly carried out evacuation work. After some time the road became passable again. No injuries occurred.
‘Two handfuls’ of damage reports – mayor complains of losses in his wine cellar
Material damage to buildings was limited to minor events: cracks in plaster and small microcracks in masonry were recorded, but this did not affect the static stability or existence of the objects. Vogelmann estimated the total number of damage reports at about “two handfuls.”
This was announced by the mayor of Schottvin, Wolfgang Ruzicka (ÖVP). My District losses in his wine cellar: vibration caused storage boxes to fall and six to eight high-quality bottles to break. “It was one of the strongest earthquakes I’ve ever felt here,” Ruzicka said. He spent several hours cleaning up after the overnight earthquake. The owner of the church in Maria Schütz “had his glasses fall off the shelf,” Różycka explained.
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Vogelmann expects more aftershocks in the next one to two weeks. Typically, after an earthquake of this magnitude, there are three or fewer aftershocks. These subsequent events were less intense, but could be perceived again depending on location and depth.
Statistics indicate that earthquakes of comparable magnitude occur in this zone approximately every 2.8 years. A similar event (also 4.5) already occurred in the same region on February 1, 2024 – although at that time at a greater depth. Experts from GeoSphere Austria explain this accumulation by geological structures: the region around Semmering is under the influence of several tectonic plates, the movements of which regularly lead to the accumulation and release of stress. (Sources: GeoSphere Austria, noe.ORF.at, Facebook, My District, erdbebennews.de) (What)