Christoph Grützner

Earthquake prediction is possible! At least for toads (well, for bufo bufo only). And at least in Italy. And at least in 2009. Do you remember that story of toads having left their home (lake) before the L’Aquila earthuake and returning after the aftershock sequence? A new paper on this was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Grant et al., 2011: Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 8, 1936-1956; doi:10.3390/ijerph8061936.

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The Asociación Argentina de Geología Aplicada a la Ingeniería (ASAGAI), Argentina National Group of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG), invite you to participate in the Symposium that will be held on August 15, 16 and 17, 2012 at Villa Carlos Paz City, Cordoba Province, Argentina.

Download the conference flyer here.

Topics:

• Groundwater
• Engineering geological mapping
• Work cases
• Contamination of natural resources
• Applied engineering geology education
• Geotechnical studies
• Environmental evaluation of plans, projects and works
• Geoindicators
• Environmental geology
• Water resources management
• Construction materials
• Land planning
• Geologic hazards
• Engineering-geological problems in works
• Recuperation of degraded lands

The University of Cologne (Seismological Station Bensberg) invites applications for an open position as a Doctoral Student. An essential part of the research activities of the candidate will be dedicated to his/her work on a dissertation project. This work will be part of a research project on Archaeoseismological Studies in Midea and Tiryns, Greece concerned with the possible seismogenic cause of the decline of the great Mycenaean palaces of the Argolis.

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Goto et al. published a short paper on the Japan 2011 tsunami and implications for paleotsunami research in Marine Geology: Goto, K., Chagué-Goff, C., Fujino, S., Goff, J., Jaffe, B., Nishimura, Y., Richmond, B., Sugawara, D., Szczuciński, W., Tappin, D.R., Witter, R.C., Yulianto, E., 2011: New insights of tsunami hazard from the 2011 Tohoku-oki event. Marine Geology, 290, 1-4, 46-50.

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The Leonid Meteor shower will lighten the sky tonight, so keep your eyes open and please avoid going to bed. We can expect some beautiful shooting stars, resulting from the debris of comet 55P-Tempel-Tuttle.

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Dear colleagues,

We would like to bring your attention to a special session at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Seismological Society of America (17-19 April, 2012, San Diego, California):”Earthquakes and Tsunamis at Coastal Archaeological Sites”.

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Dear colleagues,

We would like to bring your attention to a special session at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Seismological Society of America (17-19 April, 2012, San Diego, California): “Macroseismic Effects in Recent and Ancient Earthquakes and their Relationship to Ground Motion Parameters”. more

Emil Wiechert was born 150 years ago (26 December 1861). He not only invented modern Geophysics and Seismology, but he also had the first chair of Geophysics worldwide (1898 in Göttingen, Germany). Wiechert became famous for his seismograph. Now the Deutsche Post released a special stamp showing Wiechert, his seismograph and the original seismogram of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as registered in Göttingen, Germany!

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A series of earthquakes has hit Oklahoma, with a M5.6 being the strongest one. The main quake was preceeded by a M4.8 and several smaller ones. A number of aftershocks took place, some of them stronger than M3.0. The epicentre was situated close to Prague about 50 km west of Oklahoma City. All quakes occured in very shallow depth (< 10 km). No injuries have been reported so far, but it seems that some minor damage occured. Quakes of this strength can be felt over hundreds of kilometers in central and eastern US.

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The Geological Survey of India released a report on earthquake-triggered landslides following the M6.9 Sikkim Earthquake, 18 September 2011. A total of 210 landslides has been reported. That’s earthquake environmental effects!

A special issue on the Christchurch Earthquake has been published in Seismological Research Letters. That’s maybe something I should blog about in greater detail later, so here’s the news and the link only.

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