While a powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck on Wednesday morning off the Russian coast, triggering many tsunami alerts on the Pacific, the earth also trembled in recent hours in France. Tuesday at 12:53 p.m., an earthquake of magnitude 3.3 occurred near Quimper (Finistère). It was followed a few hours later, at 6 p.m., of a 3.1 magnitude earthquake at La Brigue, near Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), said the National Seismic Surveillance Network (Renass). The two were followed by several replicas of lower intensity.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, an earthquake of magnitude 2.2 was also felt near Lorient (Morbihan).
“I think that a piece of the roof had collapsed”
The magnitude earthquakes less than 4 are generally little felt by the inhabitants. However, some have expressed their astonishment. “I panicked, I thought that a piece of the roof had collapsed,” comments a resident on Facebook, while the municipality of the Brig alerted to the earthquake. “Indeed, a big detonation and I felt the deflagration in the apartment”, testifies another when a resident reports having “seen the wooden balcony tremble”.
Same observation in Brittany. “Heard in Quimper, I was with my dogs in the parks and I thought it was the storm”; “Feel in Lorient, it vibrated under my feet for a few seconds, but I did not think of an earthquake, it was light,” we can read on social networks.
More than 4,000 earthquakes are recorded each year in France, according to the EPOPRANCE seismological network. They are generally low magnitude. Between 1962 and 2020, only 36 earthquakes presented magnitude greater than 4, or 0.1 % of earthquakes, according to data shared by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
