Christoph Grützner

Christoph Grützner

works at the Institute of Geological Sciences, Jena University. He likes Central Asia and the Mediterranean and looks for ancient earthquakes.

  • New paper on the paleoseismicity of the Dead Sea – Kagan et al., 2011

    Some days ago a new paper on the paleoseismicity of the Dead Sea area during the late Holocene has been published in JGR. Kagan et al, 2011 investigated two new study sites in the northern and southern parts of the Dead Sea Basin and compared the seismites found there with the information of the Ein Gedi core presented by Migowski et al., 2004.

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  • The Wednesday Centerfault (1)

    It’s not easy to prepare weekly Friday links when you are abroad, this is what I had to realize in April. However, I will try to post a natural beauty each Wednesday in the future, the Wednesday Centerfaults and Centerfolds.

    Today, I start with the Kaparelli Fault in Greece (38.22°N, 23.23°E). This beautiful limestone fault scarp is more than 2.5 km long and up to 5 m high. The fault was activated during the 1981 Corinth earthquakes. more

  • Corinth2011 Abstract Template available

    The Abstracts Template for the Corinth 2011 workshop is now available here:

    Abstracts Template Corinth 2011 (doc-format, 245 kb)

    Please use the template for submitting and re-submitting your abstracts. You can submit your abstract for review as pdf, but the final submission should be a word document. Remember that the deadline for registration, abstratc submission and payment is May 15.

    See you in Corinth 2011!

  • New paper: Alsop & Marco: Soft-Sediment deformation within seismogenic slumps of the Dead Sea Basin

    Some days ago, a great new paper was published on the investigation of soft-sediment deformation in paleoseismology: “Alsop & Marco 2011: Soft-Sediment deformation within seismogenic slumps of the Dead Sea Basin. Journal of Structural Geology 33 (2011) 433-457.” The authors investigated the most beautiful seismites I’ve ever seen and generated different scenarios for their interpretation with respect to paleoseismic events. more

  • Japan – strong aftershocks continue

    A strong aftershock has rocked Japan on 11 April. USGS reported a magnitude of 6.7, while EMSC estimated M6.6. A tsunami warning has been released by the Japan Meteorological Agency for the eastern coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. UPDATE 13:06 MEST: The Tsunami warning has been cancelled. more

  • Paleoseismicity at the EGU2011

    Now the EGU2011 in Vienna is over. Thousands of scientists have attended the meeting and more than 13,000 abstratcs were presented. Approx. 20,000 portions of Gulasz and 100,000 Wiener Schnitzels were served, hektoliters of wine and beer went down the throats of thirsty scientists. Some people say the EGU contributes with 10% to the income of Vienna’s bartenders. Several contributions dealt with paleoseismology, paleoseismicity, archeoseismology and paleotsunamis especially on Monday and Friday. more

  • Buy an earthquake for charity

    The World Geological Council (WGC) decided to “sell” earthquakes for charity. Similar to the names of low-pressure areas and high-pressure areas that you can buy from the meteorological agencies, everyone can now apply for buying the name of an earthquake as a gift to friends or relatives. The decision on the application is made by a control board of the WGC, the procedure will be managed by the USGS. The website BUY-AN-EARTHQUAKE.com will go online during the next weeks. All proceeds from this will be given for charity to help earthquake victims. Since the earthquake magnitude scale is logarithmic, rates will increase with increasing magnitude as well.

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  • Japan earthquake aftermath – blogs and press

    The Japan earthquake and tsunami have hit Japan harder than we could have imagined. Thousands are still missing, the death toll climbs and climbs, a nuclear disaster might happen or already happened, depending on who you ask, and the economical damages are incredibly high. Not only Japan was affected, but other countries as well feel the effects. Germany, for example, shut down seven of it’s oldest nuclear power plants and there’s a big debate on earthquakes and risks. The Geoblogosphere is still discussing lessons, estimations and consequences, and so are the official media. Here are some reports and opinions you should not miss. more

  • What’s up? The Friday links (9)

    While the Japan earthquake has dominated the media obviously, some other news came up in geoscience. A researcher team lead by Ludovic Ferrierè who works at the Natural History Museum in Vienna claims to have proven the first impact crater in central Africa. The Luizi structure in the Democratic Republic of Congo was described in 1919 by a German study, but has not been confirmed as an impact crater for decades. Ferrierè and his team now found shatter cones and shocked quartzes, strongly pointing to an impact.  The crater has a diameter of 17 km and a 350 m high rim, which led the scientists to assume a meteor of 1 km diameter and a velocity of ~20,000 m/s. more

  • SSA meeting: Special session on Japan, Christchurch EQs

    The Seismological Society of America has re-opened abstract submission for a special session on the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes during the Memphis conference. Deadline for new abstracts on this topic is 25 March.

    The Seismological Society of America‘s annual meeting 2011 will take place in Memphis, Tennessee from 13 – 15 April.  A special focus is set on the New Madrid earthquakes, so paleoseismologists will definitely hear some interesting sessions there. Post meeting excursions are scheduled 16 April.  For more information visit the official website.

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