Databases for active faults are a major input for seismic hazard assessment and have been widely developed in several countries (such as USA, Japan, Italy and New Zealand). Despite the fact that Greece is the country of highest seismicity in Europe where almost 50% of the total seismic energy is realized, no official or unofficial active fault database exists. This is partly due to the fact that there are so many active faults that introduce a heavy workload, whereas several of them are also located offshore. This is particularly difficult for engineers since according to the latest the seismic building code that was released in 2000, no houses should be founded on active faults. more

Last week was really weird for earthquake geologists. We have seen one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured and another handfull of major events, all of them showing strike-slip fault movement. Manuel came up with the perfect description at his Planeet Aarde Geoblog: It’s strike-slip week on Planet Earth. more

I have made a video of our fieldwork in Greece, because I guess somehow we must communicate to the public what our work is about. Also, we must encourage young people to study geosciences. Well, now I concentrated on the second task: Hey, clever young people out there! Do you like science? Do you like nature? Are you interested in the big questions like “Where does this rock come from? When will the next earthquake happen? Where can I find groundwater? Why do volcanoes erupt? Which coast is threatened by Tsunamis?” Do you like to travel abroad, to work hard and to still have fun in the evenings? Do you want to meet nice people? If you answered “yes” to at least one of the above, think about studying geoscience. more

A postdoctoral position is open at ICIST-IST (Institute for Structural Engineering, Territory and Construction – Instituto Superior Tècnico) under the framework of the project FINDER – Fault Investigation with LiDAR for Earthquake Reassessment, PTDC/CTE-GIX/1138662009, funded by the Portuguese National Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MCTES). more

The Italian Geological Society (Societą Geologica Italiana), founded in 1881, organizes its 86th meeting in Calabria, Southern Italy (18-20 September 2012). The meeting is entitled

THE MEDITERRANEAN: A GEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE FROM PAST TO THE PRESENT

http://www.sgi2012.unical.it/info_eng.html

Within this meeting, we will held a session on Seismic Hazard Modelling.

We invite those of you interested to consider participating to the meeting and presenting an abstract (in ours or any other session).

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The 86th Italian Geological Society Congress will be held in Arcavacata di Rende (CS) on 18-20 September 2012, at the Università della Calabria, Italy.

We advertise Session TS2.2: Paleoseismicity of the Mediterranean Region and surface – faulting hazard in urban areas. Convenors: Cinti F., Cucci L., Michetti A.M., De Martini P.M., Roberts G. more

Dear colleagues,

we’ve just published the first circular for the upcoming 3rd workshop on earthquake geology, paleoseismology and archaeoseismology, Morelia, Mexico, 19-24 November 2012. Learn about the scientific program, the meeting program, costs and deadlines, the venue and organizers.

Download the flyer here (3 mb, pdf)!

An EGU official yesterday announced the end of the union’s annual general assemblies. The upcoming meeting in Vienna will be the last one. “It’s a general problem and has nothing to do with less interest by the scientific community”, Mrs Elena Weichenbergert from the organizing committee said. “We always had an increasing number of registrations, and the scientific level was high in every meeting.” According to EGU officials, the meeting just became too expensive over the last years. more

The 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 International Workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology and Archeoseismology will be held in Morelia (Mexico) from 18 – 24 November 2012. The workshop is the continuation of the BaeloClaudia2009 and Corinth2011 events. We invite all scientists in the fields of earthquake geology, paleoseismology, archeoseismology, tsunami studies, earthquake engineering, seismic hazard assessment to participate in the workshop. We will try to provide travel grants from INQUA and IGCP for young scientists. See Acambay1912.org for detailled information, registration and abstract submission.

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UGM SESSION: PALEOSEISMOLOGY, SEISMIC AND TSUNAMI HAZARD
Mexican Geophysical Union Annual Meeting (RAUGM) 2012
28 October – 2 November, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF POPULATED AREAS are located on active plate boundaries where great earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred in recent, historical and prehistorical times. Scientists have been working into explaining the origin and recurrence of these events to improve their ability to assess seismic and tsunami hazards in the near feature.
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