On Thursday, a new seismometer station was inaugurated in the Cathedral of Aachen, Germany. The station is part of the regional network of the state’s geological survey. During recent reconstruction works, we discovered damages in the cathedral that date back to around AD 800. Cracked walls and repaired floors clearly pointed to earthquake damage. Check out these two papers for more info. Then, the idea came up to install a seismometer directly in the cellar of the Cathedral to monitor seismicity and we are quite happy that its ready now! more
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What’s up? The Friday links (48)
2012-11-15 | in The Friday Links -
New paper on the archaeoseismology of Athens
| in PaperA new paper on the archaeoseismology of Athens, Greece, was published in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering by AMraseys and Psycharis. The authors investigated two classical columns at the Akropolis which survived since classical times and modelled the behaviour of the structures under dynamic (seismic) load. They explain observed damages at the columns and also estimate maximum ground movement that would have toppled the columns. It looks like Old Athens has been relatively lucky in terms of earthquakes in the past, despite it is surrounded by active faults… more
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Final Program for the Morelia2012 workshop out now!
2012-11-11 | in Meeting, Mexico 2012The final program of the 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 Workshop to be held at Morelia (Mexico) from 19 – 23 November 2012 is out now!
Download the pdf here: PROGRAM MORELIA 2012 INQUA WORKSHOP
Check Acambay1912.org for latest news!
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New papers & books: Tsunamis, active faults, liquefaction, tectonics & coastal change
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EGU 2013 – some sessions you should know about
| in MeetingNext year’s European Geosciences Union General Assembly will be held in Vienna, Austria, from 07 – 12 April. As always there will be hundreds of sessions and thousands of scientists, so I’ve put together some recommendations based on my own interest. However, there will be some things that you’ll like, too. more
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Earthquake prediction – some thoughts and four interviews
2012-11-06 | in Earthquake, PaperSince the L’Aquila trial has caused a lot of attention and an outcry of the scientific community, topics like earthquake prediction and earthquake forecasting are widely discussed in blogs and media. Often enough, people that claim to be scientists pretend they could predict earthquakes. These pseudo-predictions are based either on measuring geophysical phenomena (like temperature, gas emissions, electromagnetic fields, light phenomena, sun-moon-earth tidal forces and interactions etc.), animal behaviour (toads, snakes, dogs etc.) or even crazier things (horoscopes, blasphemy, earthquake weapons…). None of these “methods” works. Earthquake prediction is currently not possible. more
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Where on GoogleEarth? WoGE #360
2012-11-02 | in Where on Google Earth? | 5 responsesRhett Howell’s WoGE #359 was located in Utah – the Death Hollow is a beautiful example of Navajo sandstone, bordered by two deep canyons and with a very interesting joint system. The site is situated on a huge monocline and part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. So now it’s my turn again to host the next one. Here’s WoGE#360: more
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What’s up? The Friday links (47)
| in The Friday LinksThe German research vessel R/V Polarstern is an ice-breaking mega laboratory and the heart of the German arctic and antarctic research. It is maintained by the AWI Bremerhaven (Alfred Wegener Institut for Polar and Marine Research). When I studied Geophysics at Leipzig University, I had to chance to visit this great ship during an excursion. Now the Polarstern is on her way for the Antarctic again, and this time the ship and the crew will spend the winter down far south for the very first time. Follow their campaign via the AWI blog or the GEO blog.
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NHESS Special Issue on marine and lake paleoseismology
2012-10-31 | in PaperNatural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS) has just published a new issue with lots of papers on marine and lake paleoseismology. So enough stuff for a good read on a cold and rainy autumn evening. The Special issue was edited by Daniela Pantosti, Eulàlia Gràcia, Geoffroy Lamarche, and Hans Nelson, and is an outcome of the European Science Foundation Research Conference: Submarine Paleoseismology – The Offshore Search of Large Holocene Earthquakes; Obergurgl, Austria, 11-16 September 2010. All articles are availabe for free download! Open access rules! more
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Man-made earthquakes and science communication
2012-10-26 | in Earthquake, Paper | 3 responsesTwo papers on man-made earthquakes have been published last week and both have had received media coverage. Especially now, few days after the L’Aquila trial, the public is interested in any earthquake story and so the new findings that severe earthquakes happened due to human action caused some attention. Additionally, it caused me a headache and triggered not an earthquake, but a feeling of anger. Let’s talk about some good examples for bad science communication. more