• Christoph GrütznerCC BY-SA 3.0

    Postdoctoral Research position in Coastal Tectonics/Paleoseismology/Active Tectonics/Tsunami Deposits at UNAM, Mexico

    – Focus: Mexican Pacific coast – Subduction Zone
    – Responsibilities: Field and lab research on coastal geomorphology and tectonic deformation, or/and earthquake, and tsunami geology
    – Qualifications: Recent Ph.D. in earth sciences, desirable background in either coastal geomorphology, earthquake geology, sedimentology, Quaternary dating, microfossils analytical techniques

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  • Christoph GrütznerCC BY-SA 3.0

    New Paper: Holocene earthquakes near Cusco, Peru

    In a new study, Rosell et al. look into the earthquake history of the Tambomachay Fault near Cusco in Peru. Cusco has been hit by damaging earthquakes in 1650, 1950, and 1986, and there is also some evidence for another earthquake during Inca times between AD 1418–1471. Very little is known about the causative faults. There is also very limited information on older events. The closest fault to the city is a 20 km-long normal fault at the northern margin of the Cusco Basin, the Tambomachay Fault. Here we constrained the fault’s Holocene slip rate by dating offset lateral moraines, and we identified three Holocene surface ruptures in a paleoseismological trench. The study was recently published open access in τeκτoniκa.

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  • By Lin Kristensen from New Jersey, USA (Timeless books)

    Call for papers: Special Issue on “Earthquakes and active tectonics in regions of slow lithospheric deformation: towards a re-evaluation of Stable Continental Regions (SCRs)”

    Dear Colleagues,

    We are aiming to organize a special issue titled: Earthquakes and active tectonics in regions of slow lithospheric deformation: towards a re-evaluation of Stable Continental Regions (SCRs). This special issue will complement a session on Intraplate Tectonics and Seismicity at the 37th International Geological Congress to be held in Busan, Korea in September 2024.  The abstract for the IGC session is below, followed by our solicitation for contributions to the special issue.  If you are interested in submitting an article to the special issue, please let us know a tentative title your list of authors by the 15th of December 2023.

    We hope that you will join us in Busan and consider submitting your intraplate research to our special issue.

    Sincerely,

    The editors: Klaus Reicherter, Beau Whitney, Sambit Naik, Pierre Arroucau, Christoph Grützner, Stéphane Baize, Jim McCalpin

  • Christoph GrütznerCC BY-SA 3.0

    New papers on paleoseismology, active tectonics, and archaeoseismology (Dec 2023)

    This will be the last paper list of the year, time is flying. We have classical paleoseismological studies, historical earthquake research, a few papers on secondary effects, but also studies looking into more general physics questions of large earthquakes. Enjoy reading!

     

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  • Christoph GrütznerCC BY-SA 3.0

    New papers on paleoseismology, active tectonics, and archaeoseismology (Nov 2023)

    This has become a long list again, and I partly blame the New Zealanders who are currently publishing a lot of studies related to their new hazard model. Really cool work! But of course the inclined readers will also find other gems for their taste. As always – please send me paleoseismology studies that I have missed. Enjoy reading!

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  • Save the date: 12th INQUA PATA Days will be held in Los Andes, Chile, 6-11 October, 2024

    The 12th international PATA Days will be held in Los Andes, Chile, 6-11 October, 2024. PATA stands for Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics, Archaeoseismology and it is the main activity of the paleoseismology community within INQUA’s TERPRO commission.

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  • New papers on paleoseismology, active tectonics, and archaeoseismology (Oct 2023)

    More and more papers emerge on the February, 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and the East Anatolian Fault System. Additionally, we have a database of paleoseismology studies in New Zealand (spoiler: it’s a lot!) and many more papers on paleoseismology and tectonic geomorphology. Enjoy reading!

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  • 2023 trenchiest trench photos

    The year 2023 saw devastating earthquakes occurred in Turkey-Syria and Morocco, which caused thousands of victims and heavy destruction. This post is going to have an ironic tone, but we should not forget that our duty as paleoseismologists is to provide to policymakers and society the means to take the best informed decisions.

    Usually, we do it by digging paleoseismic trenches and analyzing what they uncover. The 2023 trenchiest trench picture was posted on X (former Twitter) by Gülsen Uçarkuş, showing their trench cut into half by surface faulting following the Turkey-Syria earthquakes.

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    Trench with a view

    Paleoseismology can bring you to wonderful places:

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    The devil is in detail

    By simply looking at pictures, one can learn a ton from different styles and habits. And discover unusual expedients.

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    Shapes

    Trenches come in all sorts of sizes and shapes:

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    Trench mindfulness

    Trenching team mandatory equipment: foldable chair or any other object suitable for sitting on it and sketching the trench log.

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    Holy cow! (and other animals)

    If only the students attending my lessons were interested in my slides like these animals are in trenches…

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    Not surprising that cows are supervising trench excavations.

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    Excavator operator shout-outs

    They are often underappreciated but are a fundamental component for a good result!

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    Hand-dug trenches shout-outs

    For the bravest only:

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    No caption

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    If you enjoyed this post, don’t buy me a coffee – I’m already caffeine-addicted. On the contrary, please go and make your workplace a better one: be kind to your peers, don’t put pressure on the students you’re supervising or don’t stress the hell out of your supervisor!

  • New paper: Why geomorphic indices often fail in active tectonics studies

    Geomorphic indices can tell us about the tectonic activity of an area. The idea is that the landscape records the signal of active tectonics, for example in its river network, in its erosion pattern, or in its roughness. Geomorphic indices allow us to quantify this, that is, we can use standard algorithms to calculate numbers from a DEM that say ‘active’ or ‘inactive’. This is very attractive because essentially, all that is needed is a DEM and a GIS (and perhaps MATLAB). The number of papers on geomorphic indices is currently exploding, and I guess the fact that the method is so cheap and easy to apply plays a major role in that. No expensive field work, still meaningful results. But is this always true? In a new open access paper, we argue that without ground checking, probably not, at least in many cases.

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  • EDITH (From Earthquake Deformation to SHA) meeting

    TERPRO’s project EDITH (From Earthquake Deformation to SHA) is organizing its meeting for the 13th -16th November 2023 in Israel.

    Please visit this website for further information, registration and abstract submission:
    The abstract submission deadline is Sept. 30th 2023.
    Hurry up and register! 😉 presently there are still many seats available, but there is room for 50 people only.

    The organizers are waiting for your contribution for one of the 5 scheduled scientific sessions. See the detailed program here