Christoph Grützner

In 2013, a M_W7.7 earthquake struck Balochistan, caused a huge surface offset and triggered a small tsunami in the Arabian Sea. Immediately, the apparently strange fault behaviour caused the attention of scientists world wide and a number of papers were published. The discussion is highly interesting and still ongoing. This an interesting case for paleoseismologists, too, not only because of the cascading earthquake effects, but also because of the surface rupture distribution, from which we might learn some important lessons for our future work. Now my colleague Yu Zhou and his colleagues from Oxford University published a new paper on this event, arguing that it might be not as unusual as it seems. Their research is based on the analysis of Pleiades stereo satellite imagery, which has proven to be a very useful data source already. Yu send me a nice summary of his recent research: more

The 2015 GSA Annual Meeting will be held in early November in Baltimore and since the deadline is approaching (11 August) it is time to check paleoseismology sessions. One of the many interesting sessions will be chaired by our colleagues Mark Quigley and Tim Stahl: “T186 – Estimating the Timing and Characteristics of Continental Earthquakes from Geologic Data”. Tim told me that there will be “some great invited speakers lined up speaking on paleoliquefaction, lake varve deposits and San Andreas fault paleoseismology“. more

Lots of paleoseismology and tsunami studies are currently being published… Here’s my update on the latest papers, including: Surface ruptures, seismic swarms, tsunamites, Asian tectonics, slip rates and archaeoseismology. Plus: A very interesting study on the 1911 Chon-Kemin M8.0 earthquake in the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border region, the source process reconstruced from analogue seismograms. Thanks to Ramon Arrowsmith for pointing me to this one. Enjoy!

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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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