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After the very successful 1st Workshop on Earthquake Archaeology and Paleoseismology held in the ancient roman site of Baelo Claudia (Spain, 2009), the INQUA Focus Group on Paleoseismology and Active Tectonics decided to elaborate a bi-annual calendar to support this joint initiative with the IGCP-567 “Earthquake Archaeology”. This second joint meeting moved to the eastern Mediterranean, a tectonically active setting within the Africa-Eurasia collision zone and located in the origins of the pioneer’s works on archaeoseismology. However, for the coming year 2012, at least a part of us will move also to the New World, where the 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 international workshop will take place in Morelia, Mexico in November 2012. It is planned to proceed with the meeting, so we are thinking of Aachen, Germany, to be the host in 2013, possibly together with Louvain, Belgium.

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The most exciting news this week surely were the media reports that a tsunami destroyed ancient Olympia in Greece, hundreds of years ago. Andreas Vött from Mainz University published a press release at the end of June about his research. Unfortunately, I have only found media coverage in German. The results will be presented at the Corinth2011 conference (registration still open)! more

Dear colleagues and friends,

the registration for the Corinth2011 workshop is open again. Due to additional capacities at the conference venue we can offer 20 more places! You can register via the paleoseismicity.org website. However, the abstract submission is closed. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Have a nice weekend and looking forward to seeing you in Corinth,

The Organization Committee

This day’s Centerfault is the Sparta Fault in southern Greece (37.1°N 23.3°E). Being situated on the Peloponessus, the fault marks one of the most prominent geomorphological features of the peninsula. It is famous for the historical 464 BC earthquake that destroyed ancient Sparta. However,  the days of Spartian glory ended much later after a severe military defeat in the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, Sparta never fully recovered. more

Following Tomas post let’s stay a little longer on the Corinth Canal. The 6 km long famous Corinth Canal despite being an amazing feat of engineering, since it was constructed 120 year ago, it’s also a geology field trip favourite because it is basically a MEGA TRENCH.

More than 40 faults can be identified some of them offsetting the entire sedimentary column, whereas others are confined within the lower sediments. Therefore, this photo shows a very nice example of an active and inactive fault within the same outcrop. You can rarely see something like that and this is a unique site where everybody can see and comprehend it.

View of an active and inactive fault

Faults also die.

It shows also that faults die. This is very important because there are numerous faults in the crust, however the majority of them are inactive (e.g. can not give an earthquake today, but they did so in the past). So for earthquake geologists their first major goal is to identify which of the faults they map are active (e.g. can generate earthquakes today and represent seismic sources).

Faults also die.

It’s not easy to prepare weekly Friday links when you are abroad, this is what I had to realize in April. However, I will try to post a natural beauty each Wednesday in the future, the Wednesday Centerfaults and Centerfolds.

Today, I start with the Kaparelli Fault in Greece (38.22°N, 23.23°E). This beautiful limestone fault scarp is more than 2.5 km long and up to 5 m high. The fault was activated during the 1981 Corinth earthquakes. more

The Abstracts Template for the Corinth 2011 workshop is now available here:

Abstracts Template Corinth 2011 (doc-format, 245 kb)

Please use the template for submitting and re-submitting your abstracts. You can submit your abstract for review as pdf, but the final submission should be a word document. Remember that the deadline for registration, abstratc submission and payment is May 15.

See you in Corinth 2011!

Now the EGU2011 in Vienna is over. Thousands of scientists have attended the meeting and more than 13,000 abstratcs were presented. Approx. 20,000 portions of Gulasz and 100,000 Wiener Schnitzels were served, hektoliters of wine and beer went down the throats of thirsty scientists. Some people say the EGU contributes with 10% to the income of Vienna’s bartenders. Several contributions dealt with paleoseismology, paleoseismicity, archeoseismology and paleotsunamis especially on Monday and Friday. more

The online science magazine “spektrumdirekt” reports on the archeoseismological and paleoseismological studies in Baelo Claudia, Southern Spain. The article focusses on tsunami hazard in the Mediterranean region and the two earthquakes that devastated the Roman town of Baelo Claudia hundreds of years ago. more

Paleoseismicity.org wishes you happy holidays and a happy new year! Be aware of snow avalanches and don’t get stuck in the winter traffic!

We are looking forward to seeing you in warm and sunny Corinth.