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Some preliminary results regarding geological, engineering and social aspects from the Van Mw 7.2 earthquake (23 October 2011) in Eastern Turkey from Prof. Lekkas and Prof. Karydis visit to the site. Have a look at the following link:
http://www.elekkas.gr/el/research/missions/turkey-mission.html

A series of earthquakes has hit Oklahoma, with a M5.6 being the strongest one. The main quake was preceeded by a M4.8 and several smaller ones. A number of aftershocks took place, some of them stronger than M3.0. The epicentre was situated close to Prague about 50 km west of Oklahoma City. All quakes occured in very shallow depth (< 10 km). No injuries have been reported so far, but it seems that some minor damage occured. Quakes of this strength can be felt over hundreds of kilometers in central and eastern US.

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The Turkey M7.2 earthquake turned out to be a really desastrous event. More than 500 people died, more than 2,000 houses were destroyed. Currently, international aid is reaching the epicentral area. Chris Rowan has a good article on the geological background (an earlier one here), History of Geology discusses the paleoseismicity of that region. The German Aerospace Agency (DLR) prepared some quick response maps for the Van and Ercis areas. Nice work!

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Update: According to a press release from Bogazici University, intensities reached VIII. They also claim a depth of 5 km only. 138 people died, 350 were wounded and 970 buildings collapsed.

An earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 7.2 (EMSC: Mw 7.3) occured in Eastern Tureky in a depth of 10 – 20 km. The epicentre was situated close to the city of Van. More than 30 houses collapsed according to first reports. Despite only several dozens of people have been confirmed dead until now, the earthquake could have caused hundreds of fatalities. Surprisingly, the quake did neither happen at the North Anatolian Fault Zone nor at the East Anatolian Fault Zone. Those two strike slip systems are considered as the most dangerous faults in Turkey. The Van area lies in a broad zone of convergent movement of the Arabian plate vs. Eurasia, and mapped faults are in concordance with the oblique thrust mechanism observed at the 23 October 2011 event. Convergence rate is in the order of 25 mm/a there. more

9:00 The second day started with a great keynote, Chris Scholz talked about earthquake triggering and fault synchronization with examples from California and Iceland.

09:45 Next great keynote: Clark Burchfiel on the Wenchuan EQ!

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Yesterday, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake happened near Mineral, Virginia in a depth of 6 km only (37.936°N, 77.933°W) with a thrust faulting mechanism. Media report that the quake was felt as far as Boston and even Canada to the north, but significantly less far away in southern direction. The US East Coast quakes are normally felt in a wide range, since the crust there is old, cold and dense which makes it easy for the seismic waves to propagate. Some damage occurred at the epicentral area, but apparently there were no fatalities. From the earthquake effects (Chimneys collapsed, walls cracked, some springs showed changes) and instrumental measurements an epicentral intensity of VII can be determined. more

Earthquake prediction again: The former president of India, Abdul Kalam, said earthquake prediction will be possible within 10 years. It would be great if he was right, but he isn’t. Why do people continue to say that? There are so many that “predict” earthquakes, and so many people relying on them. What a pity… more

Our new paper on lake Ohrid was published in the ZDGG: Reicherter, K., Hoffmann, N., Lindhorst, K., Krastel, S., Fernandez-Steeger, T.M., Grützner, C., Wiatr, T. 2011. Active basins and neotectonics: morphotectonics of the Lake Ohrid Basin (FYROM and Albania). Z. dt. Ges. Geowiss 162 (2), 217 -234. more

The most exciting news this week surely were the media reports that a tsunami destroyed ancient Olympia in Greece, hundreds of years ago. Andreas Vött from Mainz University published a press release at the end of June about his research. Unfortunately, I have only found media coverage in German. The results will be presented at the Corinth2011 conference (registration still open)! more

The preliminary report on the Lorca Mw5.1 earthquake from 11 May 2011 is now also available in English! The quake caused a lot of damages to building despite the relatively low magnitude. One building collapsed and nine people died. The report summarized the geological background, environmental earthquake effects and damaged infrastructure. more