this report of the swiss seismological service summarizes the seismic activity in switzerland and surrounding regions during 2008. During this period, 451 earthquakes and 75 quarry blasts were detected and located in the region under consideration. the three strongest events occurred in the Valais, near Lac des toules (M L 3.6), and in Graubünden, near Ilanz (M L 3.7) and Paspels (M L 4.0). Although felt by the population, they were not reported to have caused any damage. However, with a total of only 15 events with M L ≥ 2.5, the seismic activity in the year 2008 was far below the average over the previous 33 years.
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IntroductionPast earthquake activity in and around switzerland has been documented in an uninterrupted series of annual reports from 1879 until 1963 (Jahresberichte des Schweizerischen Erdbebendienstes). three additional annual reports have been published for the years 1972-1974. these reports together with historical records of earthquakes dating back to the 13th century have been summarized by Pavoni (1977) and provided the basis for the first seismic hazard map of switzerland (sä-gesser & mayer-rosa 1978). With the advent of routine data processing by computer, the wealth of data acquired by the nationwide seismograph network has been regularly documented in bulletins with detailed lists of all recorded events (Monthly Bulletin of the Swiss Seismological Service). since 1996, annual reports summarizing the seismic activity in switzerland and surrounding regions have been published in the present form , 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005Deichmann et al. 1998 Deichmann et al. , 2000aDeichmann et al. , 2002Deichmann et al. , 2004 Deichmann et al. , 2006 Deichmann et al. , 2008. In the course of reassessing the seismic hazard in switzerland, a new uniform earthquake catalog covering both the historical and instrumental periods has been compiled (fäh et al. 2003). the data in the new earthquake catalog of switzerland (ecOs) are available on line (http://www.seismo.ethz.ch, swiss earthquake catalogs). the new seismic hazard map of switzerland based on this catalog was officially released in 2004(Giardini et al. 2004Wiemer et al. 2009). In addition, numerous studies covering different aspects of the recent seismicity of switzerland have been published in the scientific literature (for an overview and additional references see, e.g. Deichmann 1990;Pavoni & roth 1990;rüttener 1995;rüttener at al. 1996;Pavoni et al. 1997;Deichmann et al. 2000b; Kastrup et al. 2004;Kastrup et al. 2007).
Data acquisition and analysis
Seismic stations in operation during 2008the swiss seismological service operates two separate nationwide seismic networks, a high-gain broad-band seismometer earthquakes in switzerland and surrounding regions during 2008