I am running this blog for more than five years now and it is time to acknowledge the other geo-blogs out there that have inspired me. In order to stay updated I follow the Geobulletin, which monitors the geoblogosphere activity. There are numerous amazing blogs out there that are either fun to read or interesting or both, but here I will focus on the ones dealing with earthquakes/tectonics/geomorphology/tsunamis. Here is my personal, subjective, but honest, list of earthquake blogs that I like and read: more

Marta Ferrater from the Universitat de Barcelona did a lot of research on the Alhama de Murcia Fault. Her most recent paper deals with how good we can measure lateral offsets along faults which move only very slowly. This is probably of great interest for many people working on slow faults, so I am glad that she agreed to write the following guest post: more

Our colleague Efthymios Lekkas kindly uploaded a new report on the recent South Lefkada Earthquake. If you can read Greek, have a look at this website: http://www.edcm.edu.gr/. Alternatively, you can download the slideshow from his personal website here as a PDF: http://www.elekkas.gr/images/stories/Frontpage/2015_Lefkada/lefkada2015.pdf

The PDF contains info on the tectonic setting, historical and instrumental seismicity, followed by a collection of the earthquake (environmental) effects. more

On 17 November, 2015, a M_W6.4 strike-slip earthquake occurred in Lefkada Island, Greece. Lefkada is close to the Cephalonia Transform Fault and has repeatedly experienced strong shaking in the past. The most recent event caused two fatalitites, some damage, and resulted in widespread environmental earthquake effects (EEE). A team of scientists visited the epicentral area after the quake and recorded the damage and the EEEs. They wrote a preliminary report, which can be downloaded here: Lefkada 17 Nov 2015 earthquake report (PDF, 3.9MB).

They document mass movements, damage to buildings, and present first data from seismology, GPS and satellite geodesy.

Thanks to George for sending us the report!

A couple of interesting papers were published since my last round-up, including work on paleoseismology, tsunamis, measuring offsets, and boulder transport by storms. Enjoy reading! more

We published a new study dealing with paleoseismological work on the Milesi Fault near Athens, Greece. A slip rate was estimated based on GIS work, mapping, and trenching. Four surface-rupturing earthquakes in the last 4-6 ka were found, and we estimate magnitudes of around M6.2. With these input parameters, we developed a seismic hazard scenario that also takes into account site effects. Our results show that the official seismic hazard zonation in Greece, which is based on instrumental and historical records, contradicts geological data. We also show that extension in this region is not only confined to the Southern Evoikos Gulf graben system, but a significant amount of extension is accommodated by active faults closer to Athens. more

Our colleague Carlos Benavente Escóbar from the Instituto Geologico Minero Metalurgico (Peru) brought a book to my attention which was published in 2013: Neotectonics and seismic hazard of the Cusco Region. The book is in Spanish, but you will find it easy to understand what it’s about, because it is full of fascinating images of faults, fault scarps, seismites, liquefaction features, geological maps, and outcrop sketches. Have a look, it’s great! The book can be viewed online for free and is also available for download. more

A shallow Mw6.5 earthquake hit western Greece today in the morning. The quake had a right-lateral strike-slip mechanism and occurred at the Cephalonia transform, offshore Levkada. Two people died and some damage to buildings was reported. The event caused environmental earthquake effects (EEEs), namely widespread rockfalls that produced an amazing dust cloud. The blog North Ithaca has some great pictures of collapsed walls, damage to buildings and the dust cloud.

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RWTH Aachen University seeks, as soon as possible,
a geoscientist (f/m) with a background in neotectonics, GIS and Remote Sensing skills for a PhD position in the research project ALMOND („Albania and Montenegro Neotectonic Deformation“). This project is a collaboration between RWTH Aachen University and the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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The 16 World Conference on Earthquake Engineering will be held from 9-13 January, 2017, in Santiago de Chile. Note that the deadline for short abstracts submission is 23 November, 2015! Abstracts can be submitted via this link.

This meeting comes with a number of sessions which are interesting for earthquake geologists, paleoseismologists and those of us who deal with seismic hazard assessments. Among them: more