An interdisciplinary meeting on climate change and seismic hazards during the Holocene in the Mediterranean will be held in Aix en Provence on July 7 and 8, 2014. The colloquium is organized by and will take place at CEREGE with 4 half days dedicated to specific areas of the Mediterranean region (SW-Mediterranean; Aegean-Turkey; Levant-Middle East; NW-NE Africa).
Contributions are welcome (poster or oral). Abstracts might be send to vidal@cerege.fr or benedetti@cerege.fr by April 14, 2014. Please find more info here (pdf). more
I came across several interesting papers on paleoseismology and related disciplines, most of them published recently. They deal with “classical” paleoseismology, with earthquake environmental effects like coseismic landslides and tsunamis, and also with geomorphological indicators for active faulting. Let me know if I missed some! more
The Friends of the Pleistocene went on a fieldtrip few days ago to study the 4D Architecture of an Oblique Rift Margin in Baja California, NW Mexico. The tour focussed on the paleoseismology of the Borrega and Laguna Salada Faults, especially on the 1982 and 2010 surface ruptures, and took place fom 27 February to 2 March, 2014. You can download the detailed field guide and the road log here. more
The report on the earthquake environmental effects of the two M6 earthquakes that rattled Cephalonia earlier this year is now available on iBooks library for Mac and IOS. Plus, the report comes with interactive content and videos. Best viewed on an iPad. more
The Earthquake Geosurvey App by George Papathanassiou and Vasilis Kopsachilis has reached 500 downloads – congratulations! The App allows mapping earthquake environmental effects in post-earthquake surveys and is currently available for Android. An iOS version will come soon. Find more information about the app here at the official homepage or visit Google Play for download. more
A team of geologists mapped the earthquake environmental effects (EEEs) of the two M6+ events that occurred at the Greek Island of Cephalonia on 26 January and 3 February, 2014. G. Papathanassiou, A. Ganas, S. Valkaniotis, M. Papanikolaou and S. Pavlides participated in these field campaigns. George Papathanassiou sent me the preliminary report today. The team found widespread evidence for “liquefaction, road-fill failures, rock falls, small landslides and stonewall failures“. more
On 27 March, 1964, an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 occurred offshore Alaska (Plafker, 1965) and caused a Pacific-wide tsunami. This quake was the second most powerful that was ever recorded and is also referred to as the Great Alaska Earthquake. The USGS has now released a report on a comparable tsunami scenario. The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario deals with a tsunami caused by a major quake off Alaska and investigates the possible impact at the coast of California. more
The latest issue of Annals of Geophysics is devoted to Earthquake geology: science, society and critical facilities. Vol 56 (6) is a Special Volume, and I am proud to say it’s our volume! Finally, 14 papers are included in this issue, most of them authored by early career researchers (ECRs). The papers are based on work presented at the 2nd INQUA meeting on Active Tectonics, Earthquake Geology, Archaeology and Engineering in Corinth, Greece, 2011. The issue was edited by Christoph Grützner, Salvatore Barba, Ioannis Papanikolaou and Raul Pérez-López and all papers are open access! more
On 26 January and 3 February, two strong and shallow earthquakes of magnitude 6+ occured at the island of Kefalonia/Cephalonia in Western Greece. The events caused intense damage to buildings and infrastructure. A team of EERI (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute) scientists went to the island to map these kind of damages. Earthquake Environmental Effects (EEE) like rockfalls, landslides, and lateral spreading were also caused by the events. George Papathanassiou and his colleagues mapped these features and sent me the following photos from Lixouri. more
Two earthquakes of magnitude M6+ occured near the island of Kefalonia in Western Greece on 26 January and 3 February, 2014. Both were shallow strike slip events that are associated with the Kefalonia transform fault and caused not only damages to buildings and infrastructure, but also significant earthquake environmental effects (EEEs). Here I compile some photo and video sources from rockfalls and other features. more
