As soon as I learned that the new iPad Pro comes with a LiDAR scanner I knew I would have to check how useful it is. Luckily, Kamil was able to buy one for our group. So we (Georg and myself) tested the 11″ version on an outcrop right next to our institute and I also scanned the way back to the office. I used the app LiDAR Scanner 3D. The full version costs 0.99 € and allows you to save and export the models as USDZ, OBJ, STL, and PLY files. I used CloudCompare to check the data.
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Since I can’t go to the field right now, I am stuck with analyzing the amazing LiDAR data from Slovenia. We have 1 m resolution data covering the entire country and oh my god it’s great for active tectonics research. But how do you actually make a DEM from the data? Here’s a quick guide using free software only.
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OK, this is a bit off-topic, but I was asked to write a short tutorial about how to make the flow map that I posted on Twitter. Why did I actually make it? Usually I am interested in faults and earthquakes, but sometimes secondary earthquake effects such as landslides can help us to find out about seismic activity. Since my next project will be about the Alps, I am currently looking a bit into landslides, too. The map shows a large landslide close to Jena, the Dohlenstein. This slide was activated several times in the past 300 years or so, but now seems to be stable. Behind the head scarp there is a small depression. I was wondering if this is perhaps just (paleo-)drainage, or if it could be the first hint for a new sliding plane and a larger future landslide. That’s why I made the flow map – if the depression has no outflow, it’s more likely to be related to newly forming tension cracks.
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While working on my project on distributed faulting, I dig into the literature looking for additional case studies beside those contained in the SURE (SUrface Ruptures due to Earthquakes) database.
I retrieved information on 18 normal and strike-slip events occurred between 1905 and 2011, with a magnitude range of Mw 5.9 – 8.3. I digitized rupture traces from published maps at a variable scale, dependent on the resolution of the original map. Earthquakes are from Iran (7 events), Mongolia, China, Turkey, Greece (2 events for each country), Italy, Kenya and Japan (1 event).
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Moderate to
strong earthquakes commonly produce secondary effects (landslides,
liquefaction, tsunamis), which worsen the impact of the seismic event, both during
the emergency and recovery phases.
Landslides
can be triggered by events of M above 5 or so, and stronger events can produce
thousands of landslides. Landslide inventories were compiled for dozens of
events and the relations between Mw and maximum distance or area affected by
landslides have been analyzed (e.g., Keefer, 1984; Rodriguez et al., 1999). On
the other hand, the total area affected by landslides is one of the metrics
used to assign the ESI intensity (Environmental Seismic Intensity; Michetti et
al., 2007).
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The technical workshop on Internet Macroseismology will take place in beautiful Ljubljana, Slovenia, from 14-15 November, 2017. Please note that the dates have changed.
Deadline for abstract submission is 20 September. Find more information in the second circular (download, pdf, 550 kb), or visit the website for registration: https://form.jotformeu.com/72052334536350
Richard Styron has released a new, improved version of his Global CMT viewer webmap. The earthquake data are from globalcmt.org, updated every four hours, and colour-coded by depth (purple to yellow = shallow to deep). The tool also displays a number of major faults from the ATA and HimaTibetMap databases. This webmap is a fast and easy way to find interesting earthquakes and to explore global seismicity. Plus, it’s a beautiful map. Thanks Richard for that great application!
I have released mapalomalia, (which may or might not mean model of the Earth), the first fully web based geological modeling platform. I hope it can serve the community of geologists to build models that can help us understand our planet and face the ever-increasing challenges that humanity faces.
I’m Ricardo Serrano, you can reach me @rserrano0 on Twitter or via rserrano@mapalomalia.com. This is the first time I announce this in a well-recognized Blog and I thank Christoph Gruetzner for the opportunity. But let’s move forward to what you were waiting for. What can I do today with mapalomalia? more
Richard Styron has published several interesting tools for fault/stress analysis and other geoscience problems, see his website here: http://rocksandwater.net/. The latest Python tool he is sharing with us is for calculating fault slip rates from offset topography data – great stuff for paleoseismologists! He announced this a few days ago and allowed me to spread the news. Check it out and let him know what you think!
Hi all,
Last year I built a tool to calculate fault slip rates from offset marker data (age and offset distance of features cut by faults). Although I will be publishing a paper using it eventually, I’d like to spread the word about it now and just get it out to the community. The Slip Rate Calculator can be found here: https://github.com/cossatot/slip_rate_calculator, with more documentation.
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[Update 15 February 2017: Since Sascha is an author here now, the post was attributed to him.]
Greece is one of the main targets of RWTH Aachen’s Neotectonics & Geohazards group. They worked on paleo-tsunamis, active faults on the Peloponnese, in Attica, and on Crete, and on the application of terrestrial LiDAR and shallow geophysics for active tectonics research. In their latest paper, Sascha Schneiderwind et al. developed a methodology to aid paleoseismic trenching studies. They use t-LiDAR and georadar to better and more objectively characterise lithological units. His paper includes nice examples from Crete and from the famous Kaparelli Fault. Here is his guest blog: more
