After the strong earthquake in Pakistan a good part of the media coverage was about the fascinating story of the new island that emerged off Gwadar. While this was really amazing I think now it’s time to think about the consequences of the quake itself. We have seen a shallow M7.7 event that produced severe shaking across a large area. Peak ground acceleration exceeded 1 g in the 0.3 s period and was still intense in longer periods. 515 people have reportedly been killed and more than 100,000 are homeless. more
Posts in the category » « ( 123 Posts )
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Earthquake in Pakistan – lessons to learn
2013-10-04 | in Earthquake, Opinion -
What’s up? The Friday links (58)
2013-09-20 | in The Friday LinksIt’s time to revive the Friday Links tradition, I just realized that it fell asleep in March…
A paper published in Science few hours ago deals with the energy release of one of the strangest mega-quakes that we have ever observed, the M8.3 Okhotsk event of 24 May 2013. The interesting thing is that is occurred in more than 600 km depth! In the same issue of the journal another paper describes attempts to perform analogue experiments of such events in the lab. If you just want to get a rough idea about the studies or have no access to science, I recommend to check out Andrew Alden’s article at kqed science. more
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Field work image of the day: Broken stalagmites indicating earthquake activity
2013-07-18 | in EarthquakeTodays field work image is again by Elisa Kagan and shows a damaged stalagmite in the Soreq Cave near Jerusalem. Damaged stalagmites were used to reconstruct earthquake recurrence intervals. more
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New papers on earthquakes, paleoseismology and a “lost fault”
2013-07-09 | in Earthquake, PaperThe latest issue of the Seismological Research Letters (SRL) does not only have a very stylish cover, but also includes some papers that will be of interest for the fans of old earthquakes and environmental earthquake effects (EEEs). In the Historical Seismologist section, Bilham et al describe the hunt for a lost fault – that is, one that was described by Oldham in the 19th Century, but never really located and almost forgotten. Nice! more
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Field work on active faults in Greece
2013-05-09 | in Centerfault, Teaching | 2 responsesI am currently in Greece for field work on faults in the vicinity of Athens. Sascha from RWTH Aachen University is doing his MSc. thesis on remote sensing, geophysical analyses, and mapping of some structures that we think could be active, and me and Ioannis are with him in the field for the first few days. Right on the first day we found some promising outcrops which we will map and check in detail during the next days. more
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New Papers: BSSA Special Issue on the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, Japan, March 2011
2013-05-04 | in PaperThe latest issue (May 2013) of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) is dedicated to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011. The studies published therein deal with the source models of the megaquake and rupture dynamics, the ground motions, the tsunami propagation, earthquake triggered landslides and induced seismicity, earthquake environmental effects, and one paper presents a new proposal for an extended Tsunami Intensity scale. more
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Kind of surprising M4.5 earthquake in NE Hungary
2013-04-23 | in Earthquake | one responseLast night (22:29 UTC on 22 April) a M4.5 earthquake rattled NE Hungary. The event was shallow (~10 km) and the epicentre was only about 25 km south of the city of Eger, famous for its red wine (Egri bikavér). The area is south to the Inner Western Carpathian Mountains. Light damage has been reported from the epicentral area, the EMSC questionnaires document intensities of VI. more
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Shallow (update: medium depth) M7.8 earthquake hits E Iran, widely felt across Middle East
2013-04-16 | in EarthquakeA very strong earthquake occurred in Eastern Iran close to the Iran-Pakistan border. USGS reports a magnitude of 7.8 and a shallow depth of 15 km, EMSC data suggest M7.7 and 50 km depth. Preliminary shake maps estimate intensities around MSK VIII, which would be enough to make traditional adobe buildings to collapse. Reports confirm the event was felt as far away as Muscat, Oman (600 km distance!). Update: USGS now also reports a depth of 80 km.
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M6.3 earthquake rocks southwestern Iran, felt in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain
2013-04-09 | in EarthquakeUpdate: Read the article of The Times of Oman here!
Today at 11:52:50 UTC a magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred in SW Iran close to the shore in a depth of 10 km. The event was widely felt in Iran and across the NE Arabian Peninsula. Moment tensor solution reveal a thrust mechanism, which is in perfect concordance with the historic seismicity pattern. The event was caused by the convergence of the Arabian and Eurasian plates, that not only built up the impressive Zagros Mountains, but also lead to the formation of the Makran Subduction Zone. Relative plate motions there are as fast as 20 mm/yr in the central part. more
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What’s up? The Friday links (57)
2013-03-15 | in The Friday LinksOn Monday morning, a M4.7 strike-slip earthquake rocked the Anza area, California. The quake occurred at the San Jacinto Fault Zone and was widely felt. As there are not many people who know the San Jacinto better than Tom Rockwell, I recommend to read this short interview. The LA Times has more info on the quake. more