In the early hours of Sunday, 2 October 2016, at about 1:17am, a light earthquake shook the Chamonix valley.
The earthquake had a magnitude of 3.4 on the Richter Scale, with its epicenter 11 km north of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, between Vallorcine and the Swiss border and at a depth of 5400m. The event was followed at 1:25am, by another earthquake with a magnitude of 1.5 on the Richter scale. Itself generated several aftershocks, the biggest one with a magnitude of 1.8.
This earthquake was clearly felt in some distance from the epicentre. In France, Vallorcine, Chamonix valley and the Giffre valley all saw people woken from their sleep and in Switzerland, Martigny, Val d'Illiez and some distance along the Rhone valley the quake was felt.
The Switzerland Seismic Newtork announced that the earthquake occurred west side in the seismically active area by the earthquake of 8 September 2005 of magnitude 4.9 on the Richter scale.
The last similar earthquake took place on 9 April 2016 with a magnitude of 3.0.
From the quake on 2 October 2016, there have been no recorded incidents of damage to people or property.
