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The 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

On 2 Februar, a magnitude 4.5 earthquake occurred in shallow depth (~2-7 km) directly at the border between Austria and Slovenia. USGS reports an oblique-slip focal mechanism and a magnitude of Mw4.0 only. According to the Austrian Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik the quake was felt widely and even in Vienna. Very light damage has been reported from the epicentral area. more

Natural Disaster & Urban Life
3rd EU-JAPAN Research Center International Symposium
5 & 6 November 2012
Faculty of Arts, Erasmushuis, room 08.16

In recent years, natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami, storm surges, heavy rain and tornadoes have occurred frequently in many parts of the world, resulting in the loss of many lives and property. The scale of calamities such as earthquakes caused by tremors in the earth’s crust and movements along fault lines, or tsunami generated by earthquakes, are increasing alarmingly in pace with the advance of urbanization, leading to unprecedented complex disasters. In addition, explosive population growth and mass consumption of fossil fuels and other energy sources are indirect causes which contribute to localized ‘guerilla’ rainfalls and tornadoes striking cities and resulting instantly in the accumulated loss of social and personal capital. more

Two new tsunami papers have been published recently, and I am happy to be co-author of one of them. In Hoffmann et al. 2012 we report on our observations along the NE Omani coast between Fins and Sur. We found a ridge of imbricated boulders parallel to the coast, but in heights of several meters above m.s.l. on top of a cliff and dozens of meters inland. Also, extremely large blocks clearly stemming from the cliff were found. We used LiDAR to determine the mass of very large blocks (up to 40 t) and found this method to result in far lower weights than estimated with the classical method. more

This morning at 03:00 UTC an earthquake with magnitude M_W7.7 occurred in the Sea of Okhotsk. Due to its great depth of more than 600 km no tsunami was triggered and surface shaking was pretty low, however, the event was felt in a wide area. Moment tensor solutions indicate a thrust event. Historical seismicity tells us that significant earthquakes are likely to happen in the region and mostly occur in great depths, but at this certain location only few events have been registered during the last decades. more

The early bird registration for the Acambay2012 workshop ends on 1 July. Until then, you pay max $190, later it will be up to $250. The 3rd INQUA-IGCP567 International Workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology and Archaeoseismology takes place in Morelia, Mexico, from 19 – 24 November 2012. It is held due to the 100th anniversary of the Acambay earthquake (1912). Check the workshop website for more information, this will be a great meeting, I am sure, so I will go there. more

Two new paper have recently been published on the Tohoku Tsunami that devastated the Japanese coast in March, 2011.

In Sedimentary Geology, Chagué-Goff et al. published their results from investigations of chemical markers left by the waves in March, 2011. The authors sampled the tsunamites two, five and seven months after the event and determined the concentrations of chemical markers such as C, Ca, Cl, K, N, S, and Sr.  more

The Gulf Stream is ensuring the mild climate in Europe, everyone knows that. But does it really? Read Chris Rowan’s article on climate, Gulf Stream, heat capacity and atmospheric circulations.

Ritz et al. published a paper on the paleoseismicity of the North Tehran Fault, Iran. From trenching studies they claim at least 6 surface-rupturing events during the last 30 ka. Read the paper here at JGR-Solid Earth. Ritz, J.-F., H. Nazari, S. Balescu, M. Lamothe, R. Salamati, A. Ghassemi, A. Shafei, M. Ghorashi, and A. Saidi, 2012: Paleoearthquakes of the past 30,000 years along the North Tehran Fault (Iran), J. Geophys. Res., 117, B06305, doi:10.1029/2012JB009147. more

A very nice animation of the 2011 worldwide seismicity for earthquakes M ≥ 4.5 in the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwWn_W6ZbT4&feature=youtu.be (with sound intensity for each earthquake plotted on an orthographic globe map).

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Dear fellows,

please stop littering the beaches all over the world. Seriously. I like beaches and I guess so do you, so please, take your trash with you. Last week I’ve been to Oman and worked in the Al Sawadi area, where you have a great coast line (which will be spoiled by a huge hotel-apartment-something complex, soon). The only thing was, you almost couldn’t see the sand because it was covered with oil cans, plastic bags, bottles, tires, more oil cans, buckets, toilets (!), packaging shit, cups, and oil cans. Please, stop that.

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