We’ve seen several magnitude 6 earthquakes last week. On 28 Januar, a shallow M6.1 strike-slip event occurred in eastern Kazakhstan. A little surprise only, we knew about thrust mechanisms in this area, but of course some strike-slip movements do not change the big picture. Would be interesting to check for surface ruptures. This is, by the way, the study area of our friend and colleague Angela Landgraf. Maybe we can convince her to write something about the paleoseismological background of that area? more
Something many people have been waiting for happened last week. Judge Marco Billi explained his verdict in the L’Aquila case. In a 950 page document he published the so-called “motivazione”, stating that “the deficient risk analysis was not limited to the omission of a single factor, but to the underestimation of many risk indicators and the correlations between those indicators.” This should have been understood by the scientists, but instead they delivered a “superficial, approximate and generic” analysis. more
Annals of Geophysics’ latest Special Issue 55-5 is focussed on Earthquake Geology: Active tectonics in the Mediterranean and Europe: site studies and application of new methodologies. This issue was edited by L. Cucci, P. M. De Martini, E. Masana, and K. Vanneste and contains seven papers. As always, all articles are open access. more
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are one of the most important tools in geosciences and can be helpful in almost every discipline. They are widely used not only in academia, but also in industry and administration. Obviously, it’s a good idea to know how to use these softwares. There are dozens, if not hundreds of different GIS versions available, but only few of them are freeware, like QGIS. Our colleague Riccardo Klinger from Digital Geography started a crowdsourcing initiative to get money for creating a free online video tutorial for everyone who wants to learn QGIS. If you like this idea, support him here at startnext.de. more
The RealClimate blog network published two long articles on the state of the art of sea level rise estimations. Part 1 was written by Stefan Rahmstorf on 9 Jan, part 2 was posted today. What will we need to prepare for until the end of the century? more
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 latest issue of the Seismological Review Letters (SRL) contains some interesting papers on strong earthquakes, seismicity, and tsunamis. Here’s a list of papers that could be especially interesting for the paleoseismicity community: more
I am not entirely sure why the following video was produced, what it is aiming for and if it should be used in geoscience education, but I like it. It very nicely illustrates what a green potato would experience if it was on a cruise ship, from there went down to the seafloor with a yellow submarine, was trapped by a submarine landslide and subducted into the Calabrian Arc and then by using a time machine spit out by Stromboli volcano or so. I always wanted to learn about this. more
Last year we’ve seen some surprising seismic events. Do you remember the two strange events of M8.6 and M8.2 off Sumatra? We didn’t even know that such strong strike-slip events were possible, and those two earthquakes ruptured in a weird rectangular pattern AND occured within few minutes of each other. Do you remember the third most powerful EQ that rattled the Okhotsk Sea? No? Well, I think it’s a good idea to have a look at the strongest events that happened last year. more
It’s Friday, friends, the weekend is near and here’s the Friday links. Today I collected some news on earthquakes, landslides and geoscience jobs. Have fun!
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