Are you interested in finding out who’s working on paleoseismology and related topics? We can help! The paleoseismologists name list formerly maintained by the USGS is now hosted here at http://www.paleoseismicity.org/the_directory/. Alan Nelson took care about the data in the past, and we’re glad that we could help since the USGS can not host the list anymore. The list is now based on the old USGS data set and might not be complete. So update your link and check our directory. Just drop us a mail if you want to join the list or if you want your info to be changed. more
One of the best blog articles I recently read deals with the problems scientists face when they are interested in public outreach. Scicurious perfectly summarizes our situation.
The transit of Venus was a spectacular event, unfortunately not visible from Aachen. A really great photo collection is here at The Big Picture (Boston.com). A cold comfort for those who missed it (like me). They always have the best pictures there, by the way. more
Three papers published recently caught my eyes. First, Andrej Gosar investigated the earthquake environmental effects (EEEs) of the 12 April 1998 Mw =5.6 Krn Mountains earthquake, Slovenia. The quake measured VII-VIII on the EMS-98 scale, and Andrej found that the intensities reached the same values on the ESI2007 scale. He reports that the intensity distributions for both scales are comparable, but show some differences due to the sparsely populated epicentral area. The research concentrated on rockfalls for EEE determination. It’s a nice example that also moderate events can be characterized using the ESI2007 scale.
more
More than two weeks have gone now after the Mw6.1 earthquake in Northern Italy, and a very strong aftershock has rattled the area again and caused casualties and more buildings to collapse. Several reports are already published on that event and we have lots of data which is waiting to be analyzed. Here’s a summary of data sources: more
The University Insubria (Como, Italy) has published the first report on the earthquake environmental effects that accompanied the Northern Italy “Finale Emilia Earthquake” of 20 May, 2012. On that day, a quake with magnitude Mw6.1 rocked the Po Plain, leaving seven people dead and hundreds of houses damaged. On 29 May, a very strong M5.8 aftershock occurred in the region. more
The EMERGEO working group of the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) in Rome, Italy released a preliminary report on coseismic effects of the Finale Emilia earthquake (Mw 5.9) of May, 20, 2012, which hit several provinces in the Po plain. more
I hope you have reserved some time for reading – here comes plenty of great new material on one of the most interesting tectonic features on earth, the Dead Sea Transform. The Israel Journal of Earth Sciences has published a special issue: The Dead Sea Rift as a natural laboratory for neotectonics and paleoseismology, Volume 58, Number 3 – 4. The papers are an outcome of the 2009 INQUA joint Israel/Jordan fieldtrip with the same name. I was lucky enough to have participated in that field trip. It was for sure one of the best field trips I ever had. more
The INGV has published some new data on the earthquake that hit Italy in the morning of 20 May, 2012 and caused damages and casualties. Peak ground accelerations (PGA) reached 28%g in the epicentral area. This is not unusual for an event of that size. Peak ground velocities (PGV) were as high as 20 cm/s. The spectral response is more interesting. The 3s period response is 1.5%g only, at 1s period the area encountered 18%g, and for the 0.3s period the values reached 49%g, which is quite a lot for a Mw6.1 quake. However, the longer periods tend to be more dangerous for buildings. more
An earthquake of magnitude Mw6.1 (EMSC data; USGS: M6.0) rocked Northern Italy on 20 May, 2012 at 2 am UTC. The epicentre was located on 35 km NNW of Bologna in the Po Plain at around 10 km depth. Media report at least 6 people dead and up to 50 injured. Intensities reached up to EMS VIII. Especially old brick buildings suffered severe damages and many collapses are reported. more
A very strange story happened in OC California some days ago (thanks @EricFielding for pointing me to that). A woman suffered serious burns because some rocks her kids found at a beach combusted spontaneously in her pocket. Immediately, a discussion started on twitter. What kind of rocks could that be? Hydrocarbon-bearing sediments? Coal? Phosphor? There have been some accidents with phosphor from World War II weapons that was washed upon the shore of the Baltic Sea. People confused it with amber. However, this is unlikely at California beaches. Mysterious rocks… more
