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.

The Tectonics and Structural Geology Division of EGU (TS) has started a great thing: They are asking the community to name 3-5 must-read papers in their field. This could be really old fundamental stuff or ground-breaking new research – whatever you think everyone in Tectonics & StructGeol should read. The TS team will then select the 40-50 most-voted papers, discuss each of them within the TS community on a public platform on a fortnightly basis, write a summary of each paper and its discussion, and create a compilation of the TS “Must-read” papers that will be permanently archived on EarthArXiv. You can place your vote here or read the blog post on how it works here. Thanks to Silvia Crosetto for pointing me to this cool initiative!

It looks like publishing hasn’t been affected much by the Corona situation, this month’s list is probably the longest we’ve ever had. Enjoy reading and stay safe!

Normal life has come to a halt, but publishing papers apparently not. Here’s a lot of stuff to read at home: nice remote sensing studies, very cool field observations (good old days), an entire trilogy by Dirk Scherler and Wolfgang Schwanghart on drainage divides, and much more. Enjoy reading, tell me if I’ve missed something, and stay safe.

Since we are all (?) sitting at home and waiting for the situation to improve, this may be a good chance to catch up with the latest literature. Alas, new papers are published without mercy every month, and March was no different. Here are the latest ones on paleoseismology., active tectonics, and large earthquakes. Stay safe!

During January 13-17, in 2020, Hokudan 2020, an international symposium on active faulting, was held in Awaji City, Japan, in order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Kobe earthquake. Along with recent progress in active fault research, we discussed earthquake outreach just in front of the surface rupture of the earthquake. Here I want to share some stories behind the fault preservation museum in the earthquake memorial park and some ideas about what we can do to improve earthquake awareness.

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.

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.

This is a wonderful PostDoc position with Lucilla Benedetti at CEREGE. 2 yrs duration, field work in Italy, open until filled:

The latest paper round-up comes with interesting studies on the Mediterranean and on tsunamis (and tsunamis in the Mediterranean…), as well as cool stuff from Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Asia. Enjoy reading!