Christoph Grützner

A few weeks ago I spent ten days of field work in the Suusamyr Valley in Kyrgyzstan. In the framework of the EwF Project and COMET a team from Oxford (Eleanor Ainscoe, Austin Elliott, Richard Walker) and Kyrgyzstan (Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov, Azat Moldobaev) re-visited the epicentral area of the 1992 M_S7.3 Suusamyr earthquake. This thrust earthquake is quite special for it produced intense and widespread secondary earthquake environmental effects (landslides, rockfalls, secondary ruptures, mud eruptions, etc.), but remarkably short primary surface ruptures only. Actually, surface ruptures of several metres height were found near the Suusamyr river, but limited to few hundreds of metres in length. Some 25 km to the west, another set of surface ruptures appeared, which were only about 1 m in height and less than 3 km long. Here are some impressions from our field work. more

Great news from Italy – A new version of the Database of Individual Seismogenic Sources (DISS) is now online! A huge amount of work went into this latest release which has several important updates and a fantastic new amount of data. Our colleague Umberto Fracassi sent me the following description of the new features:

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In case you need a good read for your summer holidays, here are the latest papers on paleoseismology and related fields. Today including a IAEA TecDoc about paleoseismology, an early paper on the Gorkha quake, coral paleoseismology, some tectonic geomorphology in Spain, clastic dykes, and tectonic uplift of an island in Chile. Enjoy!

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The INQUA 2015 congress in Nagoya will not only be the place to catch up with latest science news, but also to elect new commissions and project leaders and to plan and co-ordinate the ongoing activities for the inter-congress period. Therefore, think about joining the relevant business meeting! INQUA is organized in several commissions, of which TERPRO (Terrestrial Processes) is the one which covers paleoseismology, active tectonics and tectonic geomorphology. The IFG Palacte (Int’l Focus Group Paleosesimology/active tectonics) is a sub-organization of TERPRO itself. The TERPRO Business Meeting will be held on the evening (19:00-20:30) of Tue, 28 July in room 431, and will focus on the new Commission structure and programs for the intercongress period 2015 – 2019. more

Here are my latest updates on papers and books that deal with paleoseismology, active tectonics, tsunamis and similar topics. There is a good portion of lake/turbidite paleoseismology with some beautiful seismites. We also have some more general tectonics/review papers, and an interesting attempt to establish a global fault database. Plus, there is an intense ongoing discussion about Kashmir and news from Napa. Enjoy!

You feel there’s something missing? Drop me a mail!

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Earthquake Environmental Effects (EEE) have proven to be valuable for describing past earthquakes and their geological imprints. The ESI2007 is a relatively new intensity scale dedicated to such effects, but also integrating traditional macroseismic scales. Examples of ESI2007 intensities assigned to large earthquakes are being collected in the EEE web catalogue hosted by the ISPRA and ESI2007-related work is conducted in the framework of INQUA.

Another milestone now has been achieved with the ISPRA volume “Earthquake Environmental Effect for seismic hazard assessment: the ESI intensity scale and the EEE Catalogue”. This book is now available online here. It contains updates on the ESI2007, examples of applications, documentation of the EEE Android App, a huge reference list and, most importantly, the ESI2007 description in ten languages: more

Our colleagues in Belgium have reasons to celebrate! At the Membach station they’re monitoring seismic activity for 40 years now, and 20 years ago the superconducting gravimeter started working. To commemorate this the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the Public Services of Wallonia organize a scientific workshop on Earthquake activity and hazard in northwest Europe. The workshop will be held on 15 October 2015 at the Gileppe Dam Tower.

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The workshop “Tectonic and geodynamic evolution of Eastern Iran” will be held in both Tehran (2 Nov) and Birjand (3-6 Nov). It will comprise 3 days of field excursion around Birjand showcasing the variety of Sistan’s geological highlights (from ophiolites, deformation events, sedimentary basins to ore-mineralizations), that will be open to ~60 people.  more

It was quite a long break since I’ve posted the last literature round-up and that’s why the list is really long today.  Here are the latest papers on paleoseismology, active tectonics, archaeoseismology and (paleo-)tsunamis. more

In the last two posts I have reported on the scientific sessions of the Fucino15 conference and on the first of the field trips. This post is about the L’Aquila field trip. I haven’t been to this city before and I was curious to see the place that sadly became so famous in earthquake science. I was surprised by how many heavily damaged buildings were still standing and by the overwhelming amount of historical buildings that await their reconstruction. We were given a great tour through the Palazzo Ardinghelli which is currently being rebuilt, then we had a look at the worst-affected parts of the city. Here’s a report in images. more