Posts in the category »  Uncategorized «  ( 277 Posts )

  • New papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics (Sep 2016)

    Today’s paper round-up has lots of tsunami papers, including one on the use of DNA to decipher paleo-tsunami deposits. Also, we have some papers about Italy, even from the area of the 24 August Amatrice earthquake. Enjoy reading and please don’t hesitate to tell me which papers I’ve missed.

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  • 1st German ShakeOut in Aachen!

    Tomorrow, 18th June 2015, we – many voluntary student helpers and staff from RWTH Aachen University and the Geoverbund ABC-J are organizing with the Einhard-Gymnasium in Aachen, with 11-14 year old pupils the FIRST German Shake Out around midday. In special lectures and lab courses we have prepared the scholars for this event, but WHAT?? is a ShakeOut?

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  • Symposium on Mega Earthquake Induced Geo-disasters – The field trips part II: Qipan gully debris flow

    It’s Friday – but instead of the Friday links I have the story of a giant post earthquake debris flow in the Wenchuan area for you. As I already announced in my last post about the field trip to the Wenchuan earthquake epicenter in frame of the International Symposium on Mega-Earthquake Induced Geo-disasters and Long Term Effects in Chengdu, China, I still wanted to blog about the Qipan gully debris flow that we also visited during the field trip. After giving you some background information I will take you on the hike with us. We will first see massive destruction in the residential area and then have a look at the debris flow deposits and some mitigation structures while climbing up the gully. Come on, let’s go! more

  • Deform2015 Thematic School: Twitter roundup

    The Deform 2015 school is over, long live the Deform Community! Read what some of the digital geoscientists have been tweeting during the past week. They have take away messages for you even if you couldn’t make it!

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  • New Special Issue on Paleotsunamis in Annals of Geomorphology

    Annals of Geomorphology has now published a new volume on Paleotsunamis in its Supplementary Issues. Issue 57 (4) is all about Reconstructing and modeling palaeotsunami events by multi-proxy geoscientific analyses. The volume is an outcome of the 2011 Corinth conference and edited by Andreas Vött, Klaus Reicherter and Ioannis Papanikolaou. I especially like it not only because I’ve organized the conference, but also because I am familiar with some of the study sites. Finally, I am co-author of the last paper. more

  • Geology of Shoes – Shoes of Geology

    If you are looking for a last minute Christmas present, these shoes might not be the right choice. Also, I am not exactly sure if it’s too nerdy, but the idea is great and the shoes are beautiful. Think about customized shoes with the geological map of your home area…  more

  • Quaternary shortening at the Andean orogenic front (31°-33°S), Argentina: Current issues and challenges

    Quaternary shortening at the Andean orogenic front (31°-33°s), Argentina: Current issues and challenges

     Carlos Costa1, Emilio Ahumada1, Benjamin Brooks2, Andrew Meigs3, Lewis Owen4, Thomas Rockwell5, Lindsay Schoenbohm6, Carlos Gardini1, Héctor Cisneros1, Fabricio Vázquez1, 7

    1. Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina. costa@unsl.edu.ar
    2. U.S. Geological Survey, USA
    3. Oregon State University, USA
    4. University of Cincinnati, USA
    5. San Diego State University, USA
    6. University of Toronto, Canada
    7. CONICET

    Outstanding exposures, new data, and novel hypotheses developed during the last decade have turned the frontal deformation zone of the Andes between 31°S and 33°S (Fig. 1) into one of the most promising areas worldwide for improving the understanding on mountain building processes and seismic hazards related to thrust tectonics.

    Because the Andes are relatively narrow in these latitudes, the geodetic signal in the backarc is dominated by the subduction zone locking process at the Chile trench. Nonetheless the geodetic analysis provides some useful constraints on the location and rates of modern backarc shortening, though not necessarily on the vergence. It is currently understood that backarc shortening occurs at rates of ~4-5mm/yr over a zone that is ~30km wide (across-strike) (Brooks et al., 2003; Kendrick et al., 2006). In the north (31°- 32°10° S) this would imply that the west-vergent, Eastern Precordilleran structures are the most likely to be active, while south of 32°10° S the east-vergent structures in the Southern Precordillera belt are likely to be most active (Fig. 1).

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  • What’s up? The Friday links (52)

    The RealClimate blog network published two long articles on the state of the art of sea level rise estimations. Part 1 was written by Stefan Rahmstorf on 9 Jan, part 2 was posted today. What will we need to prepare for until the end of the century?  more

  • Morelia2012 workshop – Thu, 22 November

    Buenos dias! This is an update from the last day of presentations, tomorrow there will be a field excursion to the Patzcuaro area (1858 eq event). Unfortunately Christoph and I cannot join the field trip, because we booked already our flights for Friday. But we will keep you informed. Are you wondering what the title photo is?

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  • New papers: paleotsunamis in Oman, Tohoku-oki tsunami 2011 in Japan

    Two new tsunami papers have been published recently, and I am happy to be co-author of one of them. In Hoffmann et al. 2012 we report on our observations along the NE Omani coast between Fins and Sur. We found a ridge of imbricated boulders parallel to the coast, but in heights of several meters above m.s.l. on top of a cliff and dozens of meters inland. Also, extremely large blocks clearly stemming from the cliff were found. We used LiDAR to determine the mass of very large blocks (up to 40 t) and found this method to result in far lower weights than estimated with the classical method. more