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This is a guest blog by Octavi Gómez-Novell, Universitat de Barcelona, visiting researcher at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Contact: octgomez@ub.edu

Paleoseismic data are punctual and highly localized in defined fault strands, while earthquake surface ruptures cover much larger and complex regions in comparison. This makes the identification of paleoearthquakes in trenches strongly dependent on the slip that those particular events had at each trench site, as well as on the continuity and quality of the stratigraphy for those paleoearthquakes to be dated and well-constrained in time. For this reason, paleoseismologists always seek to increase observations by trenching several sites along fault deformation zones with the premise that more observational data might: 1) complete the paleoearthquake catalogues closer to the real event count that actually occurred, 2) reduce the event age and detection uncertainties and 3) give insight about surface rupture characteristics. While all of these premises are correct and proven successful in several cases, the truth is that in a handful of other cases increasing observations can significantly difficult the correlation of datasets between sites, making such interpretations highly subjective. For instance, in very populated paleoseismic datasets and/or those with large event date uncertainties there will be multiple correlation options; which is the right one? After all, even though based on observations, paleoseismic data are interpretations, hence models that should be treated as such. Thus, can we improve correlation using numerical modelling?

Here is the latest list of papers that deal with paleoseismology, past large earthquakes, active faults, archaeoseismology, and earthquake proxies such as tsunamis. Enjoy reading and let us know if we’ve missed something.

The Seismology and Gravimetry Section of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the Unit of Physical Geography and Quaternary of the University of Liège recruit a postdoctoral researcher in earthquake geology and tectonic geomorphology. The position is for 2 yrs, and 50% funding is already secured for an additional 5 years. Deadline is 28 March, 2024. Download the ad with all details here:

This is a guest post by Simone Bello from the Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Chieti e Pescara, Italy.

The QUIN project (QUaternary fault strain INdicators database) stems from the initiative of a group of researchers to make the structural-geological data of the potentially seismogenic faults cropping out along the entire Apennines in Italy available to the scientific community.

Strain and regional stress databases of active deformation patterns are largely available in the literature but are almost exclusively derived from earthquakes and geodetic data. However, in areas such as Italy, where the regional stress field has remained unchanged over the last few million years, the analysis of structural data relevant for seismogenic purposes can be extended at least to the overall Quaternary time interval. QUIN was born with this assumption. It is designed to integrate, unify, and elaborate high-detailed geologic information on potentially seismogenic faults and provides data on the location, attitude, kinematics, and deformation axes of Fault Striation Pairs (FSPs) measured along Quaternary faults.

Here’s the latest list of papers on paleoseismology and related fields. Interesting stuff from the NZ and US seismic hazard models, a photo of the fault scarp that formed underwater in the 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake, and much more. Have a great 2024 everyone!

Our colleague Tejpal Singh and his co-guest editors Riccardo Caputo and Chittenipattu P. Rajendran invite contributions to their special issue “Earthquake Geology of Plate Margins and Plate Interiors: Integrating Classical Methods with New Approaches” to be published in Geosciences. Please find more info here:

– Focus: Mexican Pacific coast – Subduction Zone
– Responsibilities: Field and lab research on coastal geomorphology and tectonic deformation, or/and earthquake, and tsunami geology
– Qualifications: Recent Ph.D. in earth sciences, desirable background in either coastal geomorphology, earthquake geology, sedimentology, Quaternary dating, microfossils analytical techniques

In a new study, Rosell et al. look into the earthquake history of the Tambomachay Fault near Cusco in Peru. Cusco has been hit by damaging earthquakes in 1650, 1950, and 1986, and there is also some evidence for another earthquake during Inca times between AD 1418–1471. Very little is known about the causative faults. There is also very limited information on older events. The closest fault to the city is a 20 km-long normal fault at the northern margin of the Cusco Basin, the Tambomachay Fault. Here we constrained the fault’s Holocene slip rate by dating offset lateral moraines, and we identified three Holocene surface ruptures in a paleoseismological trench. The study was recently published open access in τeκτoniκa.

Dear Colleagues,

We are aiming to organize a special issue titled: Earthquakes and active tectonics in regions of slow lithospheric deformation: towards a re-evaluation of Stable Continental Regions (SCRs). This special issue will complement a session on Intraplate Tectonics and Seismicity at the 37^th International Geological Congress to be held in Busan, Korea in September 2024.  The abstract for the IGC session is below, followed by our solicitation for contributions to the special issue.  If you are interested in submitting an article to the special issue, please let us know a tentative title your list of authors by the 15^th of December 2023.

We hope that you will join us in Busan and consider submitting your intraplate research to our special issue.

Sincerely,

The editors: Klaus Reicherter, Beau Whitney, Sambit Naik, Pierre Arroucau, Christoph Grützner, Stéphane Baize, Jim McCalpin

This will be the last paper list of the year, time is flying. We have classical paleoseismological studies, historical earthquake research, a few papers on secondary effects, but also studies looking into more general physics questions of large earthquakes. Enjoy reading!