Here we go with a brand new list of papers that deal with past and recent large earthquakes, with tsunamis, and with active tectonics studies. A huge fraction of studies is on (Central) Asia this time. Enjoy reading & stay safe!

Just as last month we have a veeeery long list today. Quite a number of papers deal with new data from Central Asia and S America, but of course there’s also something on the menu for connoisseurs of archaeoseismology, European, N American & African tectonics, and physics-based fault studies. Enjoy reading, stay safe and let me know if I’ve overlooked something.

Project EDITH runs under the umbrella of INQUA’s TERPRO commission and the Int’l Focus Group TPPT (Terrestrial Processes Perturbed by Tectonics). EDITH proposes to organize and facilitate annual meetings with a wide range of experts in earthquake geology, paleoseismology, geodesy and tectonic geomorphology to gain a better understanding of the earthquake cycle with the final aim to provide constraints for future new seismic hazard assessment (SHA) geologically-based models. The kickoff meeting has now been scheduled to 14-16 April, 2021 and will be held via Zoom.

The Bulletin of the Geological Society of Greece (BGSG) is inviting papers for a Special Issue on the 2021 Northern Thessaly, Greece, Earthquake Sequence. This sequence included a M6.3 mainshock on March 3, followed 32 hours later by a M6.0 event and a M5.6 event on March 12, and thousands of smaller aftershocks. This was the most significant earthquake sequence in northern Thessaly in 80 years, and the first large events in this area of Greece since the major upgrades of the seismological, strong motion and geodetic networks. Remote-sensing imagery is available from a number of satellites and other platforms. The sequence raises numerous questions related to fault interactions, blind faulting, near- and far-field ground motions, damage distribution, earthquake triggering, liquefaction phenomena and seismic hazard and seismotectonics of the Northern Thessaly.

The March, 2021 earthquake series in Greece ruptured a previously unmapped fault and caused severe damage in the epicentral area. The largest shock had a magnitude of M6.3. In this presentation, Athanassios Ganas and colleagues summarize their first observations from space geodesy and field evidence of earthquake environmental effects.

On 3 March, 2021, an earthquake of magnitude M_W6.3 hit northern Thessaly in Greece. According to the USGS, the hypocentre was at 11.5 km depth. Normal faulting occurred either on a plane dipping 55° to the SW or on a plane dipping 36° to the NE. The quake caused a lot of damage in the village of Tyrnavos (Τύρναβος) and the surrounding areas. Widespread liquefaction was also observed. On 4 March, 2021, a mb5.8 aftershock occurred. Our colleagues S. Pavlides, A. Chatzipetros, S. Sboras, E. Kremastas and A. Chatziioannou have prepared a first field report in which they document the environmental effects of the quake.

The 2021 meeting on “Intraplate Active Tectonics and Seismicity in Central/Western Europe“ will take place on 23 March, 2021. These meetings were held before traditionally in several countries, this year it will be held  via Zoom. The meeting used to be organised in the Euregio area, Aachen/NRW, Belgium and the Netherlands, but is now opened up to include more regions, as there is a joint topic that connects many places: intraplate tectonics.

A recent study investigated disturbances that preserved in the upper 260 m of a 723-m deep core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline in the western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet.

1. Key Points:
• We interpret micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators
• The core records five seismite clusters between 3.6 and 2.7 Ma, revealing episodic thrusting in relation to intense regional deformation
• During the clusters, regional deformation was concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults

Today’s list is again very long. It contains a lot of really cool stuff from Central Europe and the Alps, and many interesting studies from China and Central Asia. Connoisseurs of American tectonics will also be happy I promise. Plus, quite a number of papers on methods and earthquake/fault physics in general. Enjoy reading!

Ray Weldon from the University of Oregon will talk about How better geology can improve seismic hazard estimates in Kyrgyzstan. The webinar is open for everyone interested and will be held via zoom (https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/8941887790 Meeting-ID: 894 188 7790; Password: 820815).

Date: 22 February, 2021

Time: 3 pm GMT (7 am San Francisco; 3 pm London; 4 pm Berlin & Paris; 8:30 pm Delhi; 9 pm Almaty; 11 pm Beijing)