A team of Ecuadorian and French geologists has started to map the coseismic effects of the M7.8 earthquake that hit Ecuador on 16 April, 2016. The quake occurred at a depth of about 20 km and caused more than 600 fatalities, mainly in the area near Muisne. Two strong aftershocks of M6.7 and M6.8 shook the epicentral area on 18 May, among hundreds of smaller shocks that were recorded. The mapping is coordinated by the Instituto Geofísico. First results show earthquake environmental effects like liquefaction, mud venting, and surface cracks. Some impressions from the field work can be found here:
http://www.igepn.edu.ec/servicios/noticias/1332-levantamiento-geologico-de-los-efectos-del-sismo-del-16-de-abril-en-la-zona-entre-esmeraldas-y-manta
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I have released mapalomalia, (which may or might not mean model of the Earth), the first fully web based geological modeling platform. I hope it can serve the community of geologists to build models that can help us understand our planet and face the ever-increasing challenges that humanity faces.
I’m Ricardo Serrano, you can reach me @rserrano0 on Twitter or via rserrano@mapalomalia.com. This is the first time I announce this in a well-recognized Blog and I thank Christoph Gruetzner for the opportunity. But let’s move forward to what you were waiting for. What can I do today with mapalomalia? more
Pieces of history, mapping faults, and maps – today is Friday and here are your links!
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The Earthquake Geosurvey App by George Papathanassiou and Vasilis Kopsachilis has reached 500 downloads – congratulations! The App allows mapping earthquake environmental effects in post-earthquake surveys and is currently available for Android. An iOS version will come soon. Find more information about the app here at the official homepage or visit Google Play for download. more
From 14-18 October 2013 a field training course will take place in Central Argentina. The course and a workshop are organized by the Sam-GeoQuat Group, the topic is: “From the Pampean Ranges to the North Pampa: Tectonic and climatic forcing on the Late Quaternary landscape evolution of Central Argentina”. Deadline for registration is 30 August, so hurry if you are interested. Download the 1st circular (pdf, <1 MB) here: 1-course-sam-geoquat2013 more
I came across this great initiative after Richard Styron sent the announcement via the Geotectonics mailing list. He’s currently maintaining these projects. The idea is to compile all available data on active structures in the Himalaya using the GitHub infrastructure (basically a collaborative platform for programming) . Everyone can join and help compiling active faults in this region. The data is then available to everyone for free in different data formats. The same thing is currently happening for the Andes region, too! more
Today we went for field work again – mapping active faults in Northern Attica, trying to find out about offsets and slip rates, and scouting sites for applying Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) later. We found some very beautiful fault scarps and measured a good number of strike and dip values. At two locations we also recorded topographic profiles across the scarps in order to get an idea about the vertical offset. Combined with the assumption that these scarps are post-glacial, we can estimate slip rates. more
Jim McCalpin will teach his 13th Field Course in Neotectonics and Paleoseismology from May 22-31, 2013 in Crestone, Colorado, USA. This is a “9-day summer Field Course, offered by the Crestone Science Center, which teaches the latest field techniques, but also contains evening lectures covering the entire field of Paleoseismology.” more
