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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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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

Our colleagues from the Bulgarian Academy of Science, Geological Institute “Strashimir Dimitrov“, have published a report on the coseismic and secondary effects of the May 22, 2012 Pernik earthquake, Western Bulgaria. The earthquake had a magnitude of M_W5.6, see this special website of EMSC. Radulov et al. report intensities of up to VII (MSK) and various coseismic and secondary earthquake effects. more

The EMERGEO working group of the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) in Rome, Italy released a preliminary report on coseismic effects of the Finale Emilia earthquake (Mw 5.9) of May, 20, 2012, which hit several provinces in the Po plain. more

Databases for active faults are a major input for seismic hazard assessment and have been widely developed in several countries (such as USA, Japan, Italy and New Zealand). Despite the fact that Greece is the country of highest seismicity in Europe where almost 50% of the total seismic energy is realized, no official or unofficial active fault database exists. This is partly due to the fact that there are so many active faults that introduce a heavy workload, whereas several of them are also located offshore. This is particularly difficult for engineers since according to the latest the seismic building code that was released in 2000, no houses should be founded on active faults. more

The Italian Geological Society (Societą Geologica Italiana), founded in 1881, organizes its 86th meeting in Calabria, Southern Italy (18-20 September 2012). The meeting is entitled

THE MEDITERRANEAN: A GEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE FROM PAST TO THE PRESENT

http://www.sgi2012.unical.it/info_eng.html

Within this meeting, we will held a session on Seismic Hazard Modelling.

We invite those of you interested to consider participating to the meeting and presenting an abstract (in ours or any other session).

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Elsevier is facing ongoing protests, especially from the blogosphere. Not only did thousands of scientists sign the boycott (no publishing, no reviewing, no editorial work), but more issues come up step by step. How much is an open access article? $0? Nope. Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week found out it’s 10.88 GBP (~13 €). Amazing. more

Sitting in an office after sunset and browsing any kind of Earth Explorer makes a lot of people think about lovely places far away. We geoscientists are in a quite comfortable stuation with field trips and meetings all over the world. But maybe sometimes there are thoughts about places you haven’t been to. I would like to introduce this section as a suggestion for your next holiday or even field trip with bits and pieces of culture, scenery and geology. more

Recently, scientists from Switzerland came up with the news that fractured bedrock might amplify earthquake shaking. The say they observed an increase by factor 10, which seems huge. I knew amplifying by sediment basins, but this is new to me.

100 years ago on 6 January, Alfred Wegener presented his continental drift theory for the first time. The Blogosphere was full with articles, among them: more

After all the Christmas and New Year´s parties, and of course, a lot of custom made food, I gained 5 kilos! However, this is also the time to present your gifts and presents. Have you got something very special? I did. more