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The preliminary program of the 3rd INQUA-IGCP 567 Workshop to be held at Morelia (Mexico) from 19 – 23 November 2012 is out now. This program is subject to very minor modifications regarding social events, etc.. The scientific program will be the definitive one, but might be subject to late unforeseen inconveniences.

Please note that some dates like the field trip have changed! more

The Sparta Fault in Greece is marked by one of the most impressive mountain fronts I’ve ever seen. A huge (yes, huge!) fault scarp has developed, traceable for kilometers; the fault itself is more than 60 km long. Ancient Sparta has been devastated by the last known major (M>7) earthquake that happened at this fault in 464 BC. Now, Papanikolaou et al. have published new data on this fault. They examined how paramaters like throw, segmentation, and catchments vary along strike and created a new seismic hazard map, showing a site-specific long-term recurrence interval of ~1.8 ka (+/- 450 a). 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

Although I already recommended some papers earlier this week, I have two more to mention: Supawit Yawsangratt and colleagues published new data on “Evidence of probable paleotsunami deposits on Kho Khao Island, Phang Nga Province, Thailand”. Nat Hazards, 63,151-163, DOI 10.1007/s11069-011-9729-4 in a special issue dedicated to tsunami research. Ran et al. presented work on the Wenchuan EQ epicentral area: “Paleoseismic events and recurrence interval along the Beichuan -Yingxiu fault of Longmenshan fault zone, Yingxiu, Sichuan, China.” Tectonophysics (2012), doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.07.013. more

Currently I spend my time working on some papers that deal with tsunamis in the Eastern Mediterranean and earthquakes in Spain. Searching for literature and looking for data on the Minoan catastrophe I came across this new open access publication by Simon Jusseret and Manuel Sintubin:

• All That Rubble Leads to Trouble: Reassessing the Seismological Value of Archaeological Destruction Layers in Minoan Crete and Beyond. Seismological Research Letters, 83, 4, 736-742, doi:10.1785/0220120011.

Our colleagues from IGCP567 – Earthquake Archaeology put a lot of effort into getting rid of catastrophism and into making archeoseismology a more reliable, quantitative science. By the way, don’t miss the next workshop on archeoseismology and active tectonics in Mexico 2012! more

On 11 April 2012, a Mw8.6 strike-slip earthquake occurred off Sumatra in a kind of intra-plate setting and came as a surprise to the earthquake community. Such a strong strike-slip event was not expected, we always thought that the huge thrust quakes at subduction zones were the only ones to release that much energy. Now a press release by CalTech reports on the latest studies that came to the result that many previously unknown perpendicular faults ruptured at this event. Immediately some journalists suggested that this might also happen at the San Andreas Fault. I do not know of any paleoseismological evidence that this has happened there before. However, how likely is this scenario?

Link to the paper: An earthquake in a maze: compressional rupture branching during the April 11 2012 M8.6 Sumatra earthquake. more

The deadline for the 3rd INQUA-IGCP567 workshop on Active Tectonics, Paleoseismology and Archeoseismology has been extended to 15 August 2012. The meeting will be held from 19-24 November in Morelia, Mexico, in remembrance of the devastating Acambay earthquake form 1912. Registration is between $60 and $250, an additional fieldtrip can be booked for $60. more

The Journal of Iberian Geology has now published a Special Issue “Active Faults in Iberia“, with J.J. Martínez-Diaz, E. Masana, and M.A. Rodríguez-Pascua as guest editors: J Iber Geol, 38 (1), 201. This volume comprises a great collection of new data on active faults, paleoseismology, intraplate earthquakes, and seismic hazard. One article also introduces the Quaternary Active Faults Database of Iberia. And the best thing is – all articles are open access and available for download! more

Today is GeoScience Day (Geotag) at RWTH Aachen University! Organized by the Chair of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, this event will start at 9:30 am in the Couvenhalle, Aachen. Geoscience-related talks and a poster exhibition will only be some parts of the very interesting program. The Geo summer party will be started after the “Geotag” at 6:00 pm at the parking lot of the Geoscience Institute at Wüllnerstraße. Come and see! Follow the Geotag on Twitter (hashtag #GEOTAG) and Facebook, and visit the official website! more

Most of us who are interested in tectonics and paleoseismology subscribed to the EQ-GEO-NET mailing list. The mailing list is a great tool to share info on our research and to discuss. Now the list has a new address: eq-geo-net-ml@aist.go.jp
If you don’t receive messages anymore or if you want to subscribe, please contact eq-geo-net-admin-ml@aist.go.jp more