Several new papers deal with paleoseismology and active tectonics studies. Wiatr et al. used terrestrial LiDAR to analyse limestone bedrock scarps, Hornblow et al. investigated the Darfield earthquake source in NZ. Sarikaya et al. present new data on offset alluvial fans in Central Turkey; Xu et al. present geological data on two historical seismic events in Tibet. Tectonic morphology is used by Barcelona et al. in NW Argentina. Mathew et al. use remote sensing data to analyze coseismic deformation in China. Ed Garrett and colleagues present data on 1000 years of megathrust quakes in Chile, and Bemis et al. have an interesting article on UAVs and paleoseismology. more
The 6th INQUA workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology and Archaeoseismology will be held from 19-24 April, 2015, in Pescina, Fucino Basin, Italy.
We will remember the centenary of the 1915 M7 Fucino earthquake, that was one of the largest and most devastating earthquakes ever occurred in Central Italy.
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Springer has recently published the book Dynamic Tectonics and Karst in the series Cave and Karst Systems of the World, edited by our colleagues S. Shanov and K. Kostov. The book focusses on the influence of tectonic processes on the formation of karst and karst caves and one chapter is devoted to karst cave paleoseismology. The authors present studies from the Balkans, Cuba, and France. more
The 2011 Christchurch earthquake series had severe consequences and surprised scientists for many reasons. Ground motions were extremely strong despite the relative moderate magnitudes of the quakes (MW 5.3-7.1). The events happened on a system of hitherto unknown faults, some of which are located directly below Christchurch. Earthquake environmental effects (EEE), especially liquefaction, were intense and widespread. It turned out that subsequent quakes reactivated the same feeder dikes of sand blows, showing that saturated sediments are susceptible of liquefaction no matter if they had been liquefied recently (also see the paper of Quigley et al. (2013) on the liquefaction effects). Another stunning lesson was the occurrence of intense rockfall in the vicinity of Christchurch. In a recently published study, Mackey and Quigley (2014) dated rockfall boulders with 3He and show that they allow to estimate the recurrence intervall of local seismic events like the 2011 series. This works is a very interesting way to use EEE for paleo-earthquake studies. more
The 5th PATA Days have been a great experience. We had lots of interesting science and discussions, great field trips, wonderful social events and a quite thoroughly insight into Korean cuisine. It was for sure the best organized PATA Days meeting that took place so far – many thanks and congratulations to Prof. Young-Seog Kim, Dr. Jin-Hyuck Choi and the fantastic Korean organizing team.
If you want to download the abstract volume and the field trips guide, here are the free download links: more
The second day of the meeting revealed very nice and interesting talks of the Korean geologists and paleoseismologists, which was an excellent preparation for the upcoming post-meeting field trips on the following days. Talker of the day was Dr Tom Rockwell, he gave three talks and lectures, however one as replacement for Bill Lettis, who wasn´t able to come to Korea. Before dinner a traditional Korean drum and percussion show opened our ears and eyes for this beautiful and sometimes mysterious country. This closing dinner outside Busan was very special, in a kind of museum with a terracotta choir of a million voices, and…. more
Yesterday and today is the time of the lectures and talks, after the introducing field excursion as Christoph has reported. Yesterday evening we waved goodbye to Christoph with a couple of beers, he already needed to leave for another meeting in Durham, UK, early. We started yesterday morning with keynotes by John Suppe on folding and fold scarps and Vincent Cronin on his SLAM project (the seismo-lineament analysis method, visit his webpage for more information). more
A good number of interesting papers has been published during the last months, related to active tectonics, paleoseismology and tsunami research. Study sites include Oman, Italy, New Zealand, California, Cascadia, Scotia Sea, and Central Asia. Enjoy reading and tell me, if you miss some publications here!
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During the last three weeks I have been to Kazakhstan for paleoseismological field work and to summarize this journey: It was amazing! The trip was part of the Earthquakes without Frontiers project (EwF). This research project is funded by NERC and ESRC and aims on increasing the knowledge on earthquake hazards in Central Asia. The field work was lead by Richard Walker and scientists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the UK had a close look at fault scarps in the easternmost parts of the country. Our aim was to determine the slip rates of some of the longest and most prominent thrust and strike-slip faults in the area. more
It’s not been long since I’ve listed some recent paleoseismology papers, but it seems like it’s publishing season. So here is more stuff to read during the holidays… more
