On 18 December we held a short virtual PATA meeting, since the in-person meeting to be held in Chile had to be postponed to 2021. The PATA Days (Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics, Archaeoseismology) are the main event of INQUA TERPRO‘s earthquake science community, led by the project TPPT (Terrestrial Processes Perturbed by Tectonics). Most of us are starving for joint field trips and personal contacts, but it was nice to at least see everyone online – more than 170 people attended the 1.5 hrs event. The five main topics were:

Finally some good news – several job opportunities in active tectonics and related fields are currently being advertised. See the list below. Stay safe and have a great 2021!

While the real PATA Days in Chile have been postponed to 2021, we will run a short virtual meeting on Dec 18, 2020 in order to keep the spirit alive. Here’s how to take part:

The 2nd edition of “Tsunamiites – Features and Implications” has just been published by Elsevier. It collects 21 chapters on the sedimentology of tsunamis, written by a team of international scientists. The new edition (1st edition was published in 2008) also includes lessons learned from recent events such as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The 482-pages book was edited by Tsunemasa Shiki, Yoshinobu Tsuji, Teiji Yamazaki, and Futoshi Nanayama.

1. Key points

This is the first attempt to apply a computational fluid dynamic modeling-based quantitative “fossil seismograph” to develop a large earthquake record.

The record is calibrated to historic earthquakes, for which the Dead Sea area has a famously long span, and it confirms a clustered earthquake recurrence pattern and a group-fault temporal clustering model.

The record yields much shorter mean recurrence for large (≤ 1.4 kyr vs. 7-11 kyr) and moderate (≤ 500 yr vs. 1600 yr) earthquakes than previously obtained, thus reveals a much higher seismic hazard than previously appreciated on this slow-slipping plate boundary.

This year was truly a roller coaster ride! A large part of the world is still battling Covid-19; meetings, conferences, and workshops are held online, and teaching has also changed a lot. December is usually crowded with deadlines and (virtual) AGU, but I hope you find some time to check out the latest papers on earthquakes, paleoseismology, and active tectonics. We have a great list of papers, this time with exciting news from Italy, New Zealand and the Dead Sea, a lot of historical seismicity studies, and many contributions on Asian tectonics. Stay safe & happy researching!

To increase the visibility of activities of Paleoseismicity.org to Chinese in China and around the world and to promote potential interactions with Chinese, I opened an account for Paleoseismicity.org on the WeChat platform last week. The account was named “古地震”. (“古地震” means “paleoseismicity” in English).

The 2020 PATA Days in Chile, originally planned for November this year, had to be postponed to November 2021. Let’s keep the enthusiasm for the realization of this nice congress in the coastal Atacama Desert of northern Chile! On 18 December, 2020 there will be a webinar including lectures on paleoseismology and seismic hazard, as well as an introduction to recent advances in active tectonics along the major northern Chile seismic gap. In addition, the first short-abstract volume in digital version will be released.

Currently there are several Special Issues in the making that may be relevant for paleoseismology folk.
Update (2020-11-20): additional SI in Geosciences on morphogenic faulting

Since field work is not possible for many of us right now, it’s possibly a good idea to catch up with the latest literature on paleoseismology, active tectonics, and earthquake geology. This time there are many studies on Central Asian tectonics, but also interesting work on the Mediterranean and the US. Stay safe, enjoy reading, and please let me know if I’ve missed something.