Sorry for starting with a non-geological link again, but it’s important: We have two more elements! Well, two more names in the periodic table at least: Flerovium (element 114, atomic mass 289) and Moscovium (element 116, atomic mass 292). Welcome! more

I am not sure if the geoscience community has realized that astronomy made three steps forward recently, so I’ll start out of topic. Three major astronomical problems have been solved! Really! more

Dear colleagues and friends,

the registration for the Corinth2011 workshop is open again. Due to additional capacities at the conference venue we can offer 20 more places! You can register via the paleoseismicity.org website. However, the abstract submission is closed. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Have a nice weekend and looking forward to seeing you in Corinth,

The Organization Committee

After we dealt with some faults in Greece, let’s move to Spain. The Ventas de Zafarraya Fault (VZF) west of the Granada basin (36.96° N, 4.14°W) has a beautiful morphologic expression and an exciting history. The fault bounds the Zafarraya polje to the south, with Quaternary sediments to the north (hanging wall) and limestones of the Internal Subbetics in the footwall. more

Because of the recent news, these Friday links will deal with earthquake prediction. As in the L’Aquila case and in the Judgment Day “prophecy”, a reliable prediction is not possible until now. Repeat: NOT POSSIBLE! more

This day’s Centerfault is the Sparta Fault in southern Greece (37.1°N 23.3°E). Being situated on the Peloponessus, the fault marks one of the most prominent geomorphological features of the peninsula. It is famous for the historical 464 BC earthquake that destroyed ancient Sparta. However,  the days of Spartian glory ended much later after a severe military defeat in the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, Sparta never fully recovered. more

This week´s Centerfault is the famous Arkitsa Fault in Greece (38.43°N, 23.00°E). Along this about 500 m long and locally more than 40 m high excavated limestone fault plane within Mesozoic platform carbonates are uplifted against Pliocene-Quaternary sediments.

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Dear friends and colleagues, we have decided to leave the registration and abstract submission open until 23rd of May, 2011. We have already 87 registrations from more than 25 countries and a huge number of abstracts. So, if you like to submit, you are welcome.

For those, who are already planning the Corinth trip, here you will find the train schedule from the Airport of Athens to Corinth (Train schedule from Airport to Corinth station) and of course, the departure from Corinth to the airport (Train schedule from Corinth to the Airport).

As already today a notably number of users visits paleoseismicity.org using their mobile device we now offer a mobile version of this site. Just enter http://m.paleoseismicity.org in your mobile browser and enjoy a small screen optimized version of this blog.
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Following Tomas post let’s stay a little longer on the Corinth Canal. The 6 km long famous Corinth Canal despite being an amazing feat of engineering, since it was constructed 120 year ago, it’s also a geology field trip favourite because it is basically a MEGA TRENCH.

More than 40 faults can be identified some of them offsetting the entire sedimentary column, whereas others are confined within the lower sediments. Therefore, this photo shows a very nice example of an active and inactive fault within the same outcrop. You can rarely see something like that and this is a unique site where everybody can see and comprehend it.

View of an active and inactive fault

Faults also die.

It shows also that faults die. This is very important because there are numerous faults in the crust, however the majority of them are inactive (e.g. can not give an earthquake today, but they did so in the past). So for earthquake geologists their first major goal is to identify which of the faults they map are active (e.g. can generate earthquakes today and represent seismic sources).

Faults also die.