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  • Almaty sits on a huge active fault, and here is why we know

    2017-12-04 | Christoph Grützner in Paper | 6 responses

    Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan and home to ~2 million people, is a rapidly growing, vibrant city, beautifully situated at the foothills of the mighty Zailisky Alatau, the northernmost mountain range of the Tien Shan at this longitude. The city sits on a huge alluvial fan with the snow-capped mountains in the background, reaching 5,000 m elevation. Almaty has suffered from earthquakes in its young history: in 1887, the Verny earthquake with a magnitude of about 7.3 had its epicentre a few kilometres west of the city but did not produce surface ruptures (Verny is the old name of Almaty). Only two years later, the M8 Chilik earthquake ruptured the surface 100 km to the southeast of Almaty. Finally, Almaty was heavily damaged by the 1911 Chon Kemin earthquake with a magnitude of ~8, which occurred on the southern flank of the Zailisky Alatau. In our new paper we now report on a fault that did not rupture in historical times, but surely did so in the Holocene – and this fault is right beneath the city. more

  • AGU session on the development and application of chronometers in geomorphology

    2017-07-07 | Christoph Grützner in Meeting

    Sarah Boulton and colleagues will convene an interesting session at the AGU Fall Meeting. They collect contributions on the development and application of geochronometres, techniques that most of us use in everyday life for dating landscape changes and fault activity. EP047: The development and application of chronometers in geomorphology.

    Session Description

    Isotopes and other quantitative tracers are widely used to quantify rates of geomorphic processes and to fingerprint sediment sources and sinks. However, these techniques, including short-lived fallout radionuclides, cosmogenic radionuclides, optically stimulated luminescence, and thermochronology, all have methodological assumptions that limit their usefulness in geomorphology. This session invites studies using geochemical methods to investigate the rates and progress of landscape change with a particular focus on geomorphic response to perturbations such as environmental change, anthropogenic impact, and tectonic drivers. We also welcome studies that consider new developments in geochronologic techniques or test the limitations and assumptions behind commonly employed methods.
    Primary Convener:  Sarah J Boulton, Plymouth University, Plymouth, PL4, United Kingdom
    Conveners:  Amanda C Henck Schmidt, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, United States, Paul R Bierman, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States and Kevin P Norton, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

  • New papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics (Apr 2017)

    2017-04-04 | Christoph Grützner in Paper

    Today in the paper round-up (April 2017): Active Tectonics of the Makran, postseismic deformation at Bam, active faults and paleoseismology in Italy, Switzerland & Alaska, the first papers on the Kaikoura earthquake, tsunamis in Chile and the Western Mediterranean, and faults in Mexico. Enjoy reading! more

  • New papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics (Mar 2017)

    2017-03-03 | Christoph Grützner in Paper

    It is time for the monthly list of papers that could be interesting for the earthquake geology community. Lots of new papers this time, and too many different topics to list them in detail. Enjoy reading! more

  • New papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics (Dec 2016)

    2016-12-01 | Christoph Grützner in Paper | one response

    A continuous flow of images from the New Zealand earthquake reaches the earthquake geology community, and we’re probably all amazed by the coseismic offsets and other earthquake effects. However, the flow of papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics also does not stop and here is my digest for December. Enjoy reading!

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  • Special Issue in Annals of Geophysics on the Amatrice earthquakes

    2016-11-22 | Christoph Grützner in Earthquake

    Annals of Geophysics has just published a special issue on the devastating Amatrice Earthquake series in Central Italy: Vol 59, Fast Track 5 (2016): The Amatrice seismic sequence: preliminary data and results.

    The special issue, edited by Marco Anzidei and Silvia Pondrelli, contains lots of field reports, first assessments, and plenty of primary data. Plus, it’s all OPEN ACCESS! more

  • Preliminary Map of Co-Seismic Landslides for the M 7.8 Kaikoura, New Zealand Earthquake

    2016-11-17 | Christoph Grützner in Earthquake

    The M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake in New Zealand produced one of the most complex ruptures ever observed, involving many different faults. Earthquake environmental effects include up to 10 m offset at the Kekerengu Fault, secondary ruptures, a tsunami, coseismic uplift, landslides and rockfalls, liquefaction, and maybe even earthquake lights. Lots of blogs and websites provide coverage on this earthquake, e.g. Geonet, the Landslide Blog, and The Trembling Earth. Our colleagues from the Research Group on Earthquake Geology in Greece worked on the landslides that happened during the earthquake. George Papathanassiou sent me the link to their Preliminary Map of Co-Seismic Landslides for the M 7.8 Kaikoura, New Zealand Earthquake. more

  • Earthquakes in Italy: Field photos by Paolo Galli

    2016-10-31 | Christoph Grützner in Earthquake

    Our colleague Paolo Galli is in the epicentral area of the M6.6 Italy earthquake and he sent us some amazing images. I’ll just reproduce them here without further comment, they speak for themselves. Captions by Paolo. Thanks a lot Paolo, and stay safe! more

  • New papers on paleoseismology, tsunami, and active tectonics (Oct 2016)

    2016-10-03 | Christoph Grützner in Paper

    A lot of new papers have been published on paleoseismology, earthquake geology, active tectonics and tsunamis last month. We have research on slowly deforming regions, on the active tectonics of Mexico, New Zealand, Armenia, and Iran, new data from the Kumamoto earthquake, plus some marine/coastal paleoseismology and tsunami studies. Enjoy reading!

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  • Report on the coseismic effects of the 24 August 2016 Amatrice Earthquake

    2016-09-16 | Christoph Grützner in Earthquake, Paper

    The EMERGEO Working Group has conducted extensive field work after the 24 August 2016 Amatrice Earthquake in Italy and put together a report on the coseismic effects. The report is in English and can be downloaded from the INGV earthquake Blog here: PDF (6.1 mb)

    The report includes data on environmental earthquake effects like surface ruptures, fractures, landslides, and rockfalls. More than 2400 data points have been collected.

    Please cite the report as follows:

    • EMERGEO Working Group (2016). The 24 August 2016 Amatrice Earthquake: Coseismic Effects. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.61568

    The EMERGEO Working Group consists of Pucci S., De Martini P.M., Nappi R., Pantosti D., Civico R., Ricci T., Moro M., Cinti F., Brunori C.A., Di Naccio D., Sapia V., De Ritis R., Gori S., Falcucci E., Caciagli M., Pinzi S., Villani F., Gaudiosi G., Burrato P., Vannoli P., Kastelic V., Montone P., Carafa M., Patera A., Vallone R. (all INGV) and Saroli M., Lo Sardo L., Lancia M. (University of Cassino and southern Lazio).

    Thanks to Francesca Cinti for pointing me to this!