The collapse of Bronze Age civilizations c.1200 BC remains a persistent riddle in Eastern Mediterranean archaeology. Earthquakes, attacks of the Sea Peoples, climatic deterioration, and socio-political unrest are among the most frequently suggested causes for this phenomenon. In the last issue of Seismological Research Letters (January/February 2013), Manuel Sintubin and myself attempt to retrace the origins of the idea according to which earthquakes may have caused the demise of Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean societies. The article features reproductions of unpublished archival documents held by the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (Nicosia). The free-access version of the paper can be found here. Happy reading!
The following two reports are from the fieldtrip to lake Patzcuaro by our friends Pedro Huerta and Raúl Pérez López. This excursion marked the end of the Morelia2012 workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology and Archaeoseismology. more
Buenos dias! This is an update from the last day of presentations, tomorrow there will be a field excursion to the Patzcuaro area (1858 eq event). Unfortunately Christoph and I cannot join the field trip, because we booked already our flights for Friday. But we will keep you informed. Are you wondering what the title photo is?
more
Good morning y ¡buenos días! from Mexico. The second day with scientific sessions is about to start, and after a fuerte breakfast with beans, tortillas, fruits and Mexican coffee we will move to the Centro Cultural Universitario to listen to the talks. The first morning session will focus on Seismic Hazard: Applications, Engineering and Critical Facilities. The second session is dedicated to Archaeoseismology. In the afternoon, an excursion to the historic city center of Morelia will deal with anti-seismic structures in buildings. more
The 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 Int’l workshop on Earthquake Geology, Paleoseismology and Archaeoseismology has started here in Morelia, Mexico. We are going to cover the sessions whenever we have time to drop a few lines, however, we can not comment all talks and posters.
[Note: this post was updated on 2012-11-29, see Maria’s comment]
more
On Thursday, a new seismometer station was inaugurated in the Cathedral of Aachen, Germany. The station is part of the regional network of the state’s geological survey. During recent reconstruction works, we discovered damages in the cathedral that date back to around AD 800. Cracked walls and repaired floors clearly pointed to earthquake damage. Check out these two papers for more info. Then, the idea came up to install a seismometer directly in the cellar of the Cathedral to monitor seismicity and we are quite happy that its ready now! more
A new paper on the archaeoseismology of Athens, Greece, was published in the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering by AMraseys and Psycharis. The authors investigated two classical columns at the Akropolis which survived since classical times and modelled the behaviour of the structures under dynamic (seismic) load. They explain observed damages at the columns and also estimate maximum ground movement that would have toppled the columns. It looks like Old Athens has been relatively lucky in terms of earthquakes in the past, despite it is surrounded by active faults… more
The final program of the 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 Workshop to be held at Morelia (Mexico) from 19 – 23 November 2012 is out now!
Download the pdf here: PROGRAM MORELIA 2012 INQUA WORKSHOP
Check Acambay1912.org for latest news!
more
Next year’s European Geosciences Union General Assembly will be held in Vienna, Austria, from 07 – 12 April. As always there will be hundreds of sessions and thousands of scientists, so I’ve put together some recommendations based on my own interest. However, there will be some things that you’ll like, too. more
A new paper has been published online first by Hinzen et al. on their archeoseismological study in Cologne, Germany. During recent archeological excavations, a number of damaged structures from Roman to Medieval times have been discovered and described among them a synagoge, the Praetorium, and a Roman well. Since damaging historical earthquakes are documented for the Lower Rhine Embayment, seismic shaking was a good guess to have caused the observed damage. more