2025-03-06
Public Guided Tours at BedrettoLab 2025
In cooperation with the Museum Sasso San Gottardo, ETH Zurich will once again offer public guided tours at BedrettoLab starting in summer 2025. The tours will take place on five dates and will be held in Italian and German.
The BedrettoLab, situated in a 5.2 km-long rock tunnel, offers a unique opportunity to study the geology of the Alps and visit a one-of-a-kind underground laboratory operated by ETH Zurich. In collaboration with the Museum Sasso San Gottardo, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the BedrettoLab on five occasions, guided by trained tour guides.
During the approximately two-hour walking tour, visitors will learn about the history of the Bedretto tunnel. They will also discover geological phenomena visible on the tunnel’s unlined walls, offering a tangible experience of the Alps' formation. Additionally, they will visit the geothermal testbed and gain insight into why ETH Zurich has chosen this unique location for geothermal and earthquake research.
Costs and ticket booking
The cost per person for a tour is CHF 25. Tickets for the following dates can be booked on the Museum Sasso San Gottardo website: www.sasso-sangottardo.ch/bedrettolab.
- Saturday, June 14
- Sunday, July 13
- Friday, August 8 (tours on this day in German only)
- Saturday, September 20
- Saturday, October 11
More information on guided tours: www.bedrettolab.ethz.ch/en/about/visit/
2025-02-20
Final construction phase of the new side tunnel has begun
The final construction phase of the new side tunnel has recently started. About 60 meters still need to be built using drill-and-blast excavation to complete the 120-meter-long tunnel. The side tunnel is expected to be completed in the fall.
2025-01-30
Successful injection experiment at the new Earthquake Physics Testbed of the BedrettoLab
A three week long injection experiment at the new Earthquake Physics Testbed of the BedrettoLab was successfully completed in November and December 2024. The goal was to characterise how the target fault structure of the FEAR (Fault Activation and Earthquake Rupture) project responds to high-pressure water injection. The results will serve as a baseline for a series of experiments planned in the coming two years, which are aimed at understanding fault zone deformation processes.
After extensive preparation—including drilling boreholes, installing sensors, and manufacturing a specially designed fault deformation probe—the experiment commenced in late November. Over three weeks, approximately 1’100 cubic metres of water were injected into the target fault zone via two boreholes, using a custom designed remote control system. This volume is roughly equivalent to 5’600 bathtubs of water. Importantly, all water used was sourced from wells in the tunnel, ensuring no drinking water was wasted.
The injection was expected to induce a response in the fault structure due to increased pressure in the surrounding rock. Initial analysis indicates minor fault movements, with detailed calculations underway to determine the extent of this displacement. Additionally, the experiment revealed greater complexity in the fault zone than previously assumed. During high-pressure injection, small seismic events occurred more than 50 meters away from the injection site, and suggest the presence of an extensive fracture network.
These findings confirm that the fault zone can be activated, and provide crucial information for the design of the next FEAR experiments, which will focus on the controlled activation of specific fault zone segments.