Christoph Grützner

The most exciting news this week surely were the media reports that a tsunami destroyed ancient Olympia in Greece, hundreds of years ago. Andreas Vött from Mainz University published a press release at the end of June about his research. Unfortunately, I have only found media coverage in German. The results will be presented at the Corinth2011 conference (registration still open)! more

The preliminary report on the Lorca Mw5.1 earthquake from 11 May 2011 is now also available in English! The quake caused a lot of damages to building despite the relatively low magnitude. One building collapsed and nine people died. The report summarized the geological background, environmental earthquake effects and damaged infrastructure. more

This day’s Centerfault is one of the longest and best investigated faults in Spain, the sinistral Carboneras Fault Zone (CFZ) in Andalusia (36.85°N, 2.25°W). In the north, the CFZ is bounded by the Palomares fault, its southern tip reaches the Gulf of Almería. The NE-SW striking fault zone stretches over 50 km onshore and additional 100 km offshore (Gràcia et al., 2006) and is, therefore, capable of earthquakes with magnitudes > 7. It is one of the three major strike-slip faults in the Betics (Bell et al., 1997). more

Some good articles came up last week, and two interesting things happened in northwestern Europe. A small earthquake (M2.7-M3.4) hit northern Netherlands in the Groningen area and people claimed light house damages despite the low magnitude. The event was caused by natural gas production. The gas company, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), even has an online-formular for that! more

Yesterday, British media reported on a small tsunami that hit southwestern England at 10.15 BST. Wave heights reached around 30 cm in some bays but didn’t cause damages, BBC reports. Scientists from Plymouth University claimed an offshore landslide responsible for the rare phenomenon. The waves were seen in Cornawall, Devon and Hampshire. more

Felix‘ WoGE #293 led us to a giant dune field in northern Namibia, adding one more location to my where-I-need-to-go-list. The dunes stretch over hundreds of kilometers across southern Africa, which made it not too easy to find the actual spot. Luckily, I came across Heike’s thesis. Felix asked me to show some evidence for tsunamis in the Mediterranean in the next round, so find out whether I did or not. Should be rather easy. more

I found Tannis‘ WoGE #289 more or less by accident, just having a quick look and suddenly realizing that I am in the right area. It was more difficult to find some literature about the Bomapau and Kiriwina Islands. A great area, very high seismicity and a complex tectonic situation. Seems to be a fantastic destination for holidays as well, all those beautiful atolls must be great for divers. more

On Monday, 13 June, Christchurch was again rocked by earthquakes that caused damages and left people injured. Three significant events happened within two hours. At 1:00 UTC a mb5.0 event occured, followed by a Mw6.0 at 2:20 UTC and a M4.6 at 2:40 UTC. The strongest event caused instrumental intensities of up to VII close to the city. Update: Geonet reports a magnitude of 6.3. more

Sorry for starting with a non-geological link again, but it’s important: We have two more elements! Well, two more names in the periodic table at least: Flerovium (element 114, atomic mass 289) and Moscovium (element 116, atomic mass 292). Welcome! more

I am not sure if the geoscience community has realized that astronomy made three steps forward recently, so I’ll start out of topic. Three major astronomical problems have been solved! Really! more