Christoph Grützner

OK, this is a bit off-topic, but I was asked to write a short tutorial about how to make the flow map that I posted on Twitter. Why did I actually make it? Usually I am interested in faults and earthquakes, but sometimes secondary earthquake effects such as landslides can help us to find out about seismic activity. Since my next project will be about the Alps, I am currently looking a bit into landslides, too. The map shows a large landslide close to Jena, the Dohlenstein. This slide was activated several times in the past 300 years or so, but now seems to be stable. Behind the head scarp there is a small depression. I was wondering if this is perhaps just (paleo-)drainage, or if it could be the first hint for a new sliding plane and a larger future landslide. That’s why I made the flow map – if the depression has no outflow, it’s more likely to be related to newly forming tension cracks.

This is a wonderful PostDoc position with Lucilla Benedetti at CEREGE. 2 yrs duration, field work in Italy, open until filled:

The latest paper round-up comes with interesting studies on the Mediterranean and on tsunamis (and tsunamis in the Mediterranean…), as well as cool stuff from Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Asia. Enjoy reading!

In my DFG-financed project “Earth surface response to Quaternary faulting and shallow crustal structure in the eastern Adria-Alpine collision zone and the Friulian plain” I investigate the active faults of NE Italy and western Slovenia. This project is part of the Priority Programme SPP2017 “Mountain Building Processes in 4D“. We’ve now published a paper on the activity of the Udine-Buttrio thrust fault. The paper is open access and available here.

Dear colleagues,

Please make sure to register for the 2020 PATA Days in Chile before 28 February here: https://www.patadayschile.cl

You can also book your hotels here and submit the short abstracts. There’s only a limited number of places due to the remote venue in a wonderful resort hotel – first come, first served. The PATA Days (Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics, Archaeoseismology) is the largest int’l meeting for the paleoseismology community and supported by INQUA. In Chile, a lot of tsunami science will of course also happen.

This is the first paper round-up of the year and I think it’s perhaps a new record. So many studies have been published, but maybe it’s just because nobody has done much in the last week of December. Whatever it is – there are some pretty interesting papers in the list. Tsunami biomarkers! Kaikoura EQ news! Historic EQs! New software! Ridgecrest & Palu! And so much more. Enjoy reading!

Klaus-G. Hinzen, Fabrizio Galadini, Shmuel Marco, Stathis Stiros, and Amanda M. Gaggioli invite contributions to an archaeoseismology session at the 37. Assembly of the European Seismological Commission (ESC) 2020, September 6-11 in Corfu, Greece. Deadline for abstract submission is April 12th 2020.

A Special Issue on continental strike-slip faults is planned in Mediterranean Geoscience Reviews, a new Springer journal: The 20th anniversary of the Eastern Marmara Earthquakes: Active tectonics of continental strike-slip faults

[…] continental strike-slip faults are complex structures on which the deformation is commonly distributed among a number of parallel to subparallel fault strands, making them in places significantly different in behaviour from their oceanic counterparts.

Thus, the goal of this issue is to publish a collection of high-quality papers on active tectonics of continental strike-slip faults around the globe using various disciplines, including but not limited to, tectonic geomorphology, paleoseismology, structural geology, crustal deformation, tectonic geodesy and seismology of continental strike-slip faults.

We hope you had a great start into 2020. May the new year bring exciting projects, secure funding, safe travels, and positive reviews. Quite a number of interesting studies have been published in the last few weeks, this is the latest paper round-up. Enjoy reading!

A recent study presented at the GSA meeting concludes that the UNESCO World Heritage site of Machu Picchu in Peru was intentionally built on faulted bedrock in order to ease the quarrying of the huge blocks used as construction material (Menegat, 2019). But has Machu Picchu seen big earthquakes in its lifetime? And if so, can it tell us something about their magnitude? After all, there are plenty of earthquakes in Peru, not only at the subduction zone but also in the Andes (e.g., Wimpenny et al., 2018). Some strong instrumental events occurred less than 100 km away from the Inca site. However, in the area of Machu Picchu we knew little about strong earthquakes. That’s why in 2016 a group of researchers from Peru, France, and the UK including myself started to investigate the active faults around Cusco and archaeoseismological damage to Machu Picchu and other famous Inca sites nearby in the CUSCO-PATA project.