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The Motagua Fault in Guatemala is part of the North American – Caribbean plate boundary. It ruptured in a M7.5 earthquake in 1976, killing 23,000 people and causing ca. 230 km of surface ruptures. Very little was known, however, about previous strong earthquakes on this fault. In a new study, we identify five surface-rupturing events in the last 1300 years, including the 1976 quake. We opened a paleoseismological trench and compared our results with archaeological information from nearby sites and historical earthquake data. 

This is a guest blog by Marco Caciagli from INGV. 

Following the strong (Mw=7.8)  Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence of February 6, 2023 (Fig. 1), within the framework of the collaboration between the Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC) and the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), a delegation of earthquake geologists, specializing in the collection of coseismic surface effects and representing the DPC’s specific competence centers (INGV, ISPRA, and OGS), conducted a technical mission to Türkiye from May 6 to 13, 2023. This first field survey, carried out in preparation for the subsequent mission planned for October 2023 by the European Task Force “EuQuaGe”, was organized and coordinated by the INGV EMERGEO operational group.

The field survey covered more than 180 km along the central sector of the East Anatolian Fault Zone (Kahramanmaraş‑Pazarcık fault segment; Fig. 1), where coseismic measurements were collected and documented through ground-based photography and drone imagery.

Several Special Issues (SI) are currently open for contributions in paleoseismology, active tectonics, and related fields:

BSSA: Quantifying the Long-term Prehistoric Earthquake Record: Advances and Applications. Deadline: 1 June, 2026. Guest editors: Rich Briggs, Alex Hatem, Yann Klinger, Nicola Litchfield, Dee Ninis, & Mark Stirling. https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/calls-papers/bssa-call-for-papers-10/

BSSA: Complex Multi-Fault Earthquakes. Deadline: 1 July, 2026. Guest editors: Ryo Ando, Zoë Mildon, Kevin Milner, Vasiliki Mouslopoulou, & Andy Nicol. https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/calls-papers/bssa-call-for-papers-11/

Earthquake Research Advances: Active Tectonics of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Case Studies on Earthquake, Volcano and Tsunami Induced Hazards. Deadline: 31 March, 2026. Guest editors: Tuncay Taymaz, Aldo Zollo, Hongfeng Yang, Teng Wang, Andrea Billi, Daniele Cheloni. https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/earthquake-research-advances/call-for-papers/active-tectonics-of-the-eastern-mediterranean-region-case-studies-on-earthquake-volcano-and-tsunami-induced-hazards/

Here at the PATA Days meeting in Guatemala, Franz Livio talked about a huge paleoseismology project targeting the Rieti Basin in Italy. He said we’d have to read the paper in order to appreciate all the details, and here we are – the paper has just been published. Of course there are many more really interesting studies that came out recently. Enjoy reading!

By Jacek and Christoph

Paleoseismology was developed in places where faults behave well. In California, Anatolia, or along major plate-boundary faults, earthquakes repeatedly break the surface in rather short recurrence intervals, and they form long scarps. In such settings, tectonic geomorphology, subsurface data, and empirical scaling laws between rupture lengths and offset tend to point in the same direction. These regions have been essential for developing paleoseismic methods—but they have also shaped our expectations in ways that are not always transferable to other settings.
Mature orogens and slowly deforming mountain belts are different. Fault slip rates are low and earthquake recurrence intervals are long, often tens of thousands of years. Erosion, solifluction, soil creep, and other types of mass movements modify the landscape faster than tectonics can do. This is especially true in areas that are glaciated during the ice ages. As a result, the geological record of faulting is incomplete by default. Scarps are degraded, stratigraphic markers are rare, and the link between surface morphology and fault kinematics is often ambiguous. None of this means that these regions are tectonically inactive. It means that their activity is harder to read.

This is the latest list of papers on paleoearthquakes and related fields. Enjoy reading and let us know in case we’ve missed something. 

This time there are a lot of papers on the active tectonics of the Mediterranean region in our list, but we also have interesting studies from Central and Eastern Asia, the Caribbean, and N America. Plus, a couple of methodological papers. Enjoy reading!

This month we have a nice variety of topics and methods, including interesting tsunami studies and lake paleoseismology. Enjoy reading!

What a long list we have today! Perhaps a bit more seismic hazard-focussed than usual, but there’s even a study on active faulting and seismic hazard on the moon. Apart from that there are many papers on Asia this time. Enjoy reading and please let us know about your new research for next month’s list.

Today’s list of papers includes a large number of publications on the Tibetan Plateau, but earthquake aficionados will also find interesting studies on methodological aspects of earthquake geology and case studies from Europa, the Americas, and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Enjoy reading and let us know if we’ve missed something!