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Our colleagues from the Bulgarian Academy of Science, Geological Institute “Strashimir Dimitrov“, have published a report on the coseismic and secondary effects of the May 22, 2012 Pernik earthquake, Western Bulgaria. The earthquake had a magnitude of M_W5.6, see this special website of EMSC. Radulov et al. report intensities of up to VII (MSK) and various coseismic and secondary earthquake effects. more

The EMERGEO working group of the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) in Rome, Italy released a preliminary report on coseismic effects of the Finale Emilia earthquake (Mw 5.9) of May, 20, 2012, which hit several provinces in the Po plain. more

Databases for active faults are a major input for seismic hazard assessment and have been widely developed in several countries (such as USA, Japan, Italy and New Zealand). Despite the fact that Greece is the country of highest seismicity in Europe where almost 50% of the total seismic energy is realized, no official or unofficial active fault database exists. This is partly due to the fact that there are so many active faults that introduce a heavy workload, whereas several of them are also located offshore. This is particularly difficult for engineers since according to the latest the seismic building code that was released in 2000, no houses should be founded on active faults. more

The Italian Geological Society (Societą Geologica Italiana), founded in 1881, organizes its 86th meeting in Calabria, Southern Italy (18-20 September 2012). The meeting is entitled

THE MEDITERRANEAN: A GEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE FROM PAST TO THE PRESENT

http://www.sgi2012.unical.it/info_eng.html

Within this meeting, we will held a session on Seismic Hazard Modelling.

We invite those of you interested to consider participating to the meeting and presenting an abstract (in ours or any other session).

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Elsevier is facing ongoing protests, especially from the blogosphere. Not only did thousands of scientists sign the boycott (no publishing, no reviewing, no editorial work), but more issues come up step by step. How much is an open access article? $0? Nope. Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week found out it’s 10.88 GBP (~13 €). Amazing. more

Sitting in an office after sunset and browsing any kind of Earth Explorer makes a lot of people think about lovely places far away. We geoscientists are in a quite comfortable stuation with field trips and meetings all over the world. But maybe sometimes there are thoughts about places you haven’t been to. I would like to introduce this section as a suggestion for your next holiday or even field trip with bits and pieces of culture, scenery and geology. more

Recently, scientists from Switzerland came up with the news that fractured bedrock might amplify earthquake shaking. The say they observed an increase by factor 10, which seems huge. I knew amplifying by sediment basins, but this is new to me.

100 years ago on 6 January, Alfred Wegener presented his continental drift theory for the first time. The Blogosphere was full with articles, among them: more

After all the Christmas and New Year´s parties, and of course, a lot of custom made food, I gained 5 kilos! However, this is also the time to present your gifts and presents. Have you got something very special? I did. more

This beautiful, isolated rock stands in the Alkyonides Gulf, the northwestern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It has some beautiful notches, which indicate recent uplift. It is situated right on the footwall of an active fault, which was activated during the 1981 earthquake sequence. It is not so easy to use those notches as sea level indicators or for measuring tectonic movements if both effects have to be taken into account. The fault has a huge throw and a beautiful scarp (limestone) with lots of slickensides. One of my favourite places in Greece. Well, the entire Perachora peninsula is worth a visit – an earthquake geologist’s Disney Land!

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Delphi is one of the most impressive places I’ve ever seen. The landscape is just breathtaking – the archaeological site is situated on the southern flank of the Parnassus Mountains, dominating the entire valley. You can see the Gulf of Corinth right from the temples, and due to the steep slope you feel like Delphi is built on many floors with the stadium being the roof. The oracle might be related to faults under the temple; some authors speculate that gas vents (ethane?) caused hallucinations of the priest, which were interpreted as the oracle. Another nice thing is that you can see the archaeoseismological damage from strong historical earthquakes everywhere – cracks, rotated and tilted walls, corner break-outs, dropped keystones in arches and so on. more