A recent study presented at the GSA meeting concludes that the UNESCO World Heritage site of Machu Picchu in Peru was intentionally built on faulted bedrock in order to ease the quarrying of the huge blocks used as construction material (Menegat, 2019). But has Machu Picchu seen big earthquakes in its lifetime? And if so, can it tell us something about their magnitude? After all, there are plenty of earthquakes in Peru, not only at the subduction zone but also in the Andes (e.g., Wimpenny et al., 2018). Some strong instrumental events occurred less than 100 km away from the Inca site. However, in the area of Machu Picchu we knew little about strong earthquakes. That’s why in 2016 a group of researchers from Peru, France, and the UK including myself started to investigate the active faults around Cusco and archaeoseismological damage to Machu Picchu and other famous Inca sites nearby in the CUSCO-PATA project.
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Archaeoseismology – Earthquake damage in Machu Picchu
2019-12-18 | in Paper -
When the fault rings twice: repeated ruptures on the same fault stretch
2019-11-28 | in Uncategorized | 3 responsesThe recent publication of a paper on the Weitin Thrust (Papua New Guinea) by Chen, Milliner and Avouac (Fig. 1) gave me the opportunity to dig out and look back to some notes I wrote few months ago. Chen et al. use optical image correlation to document coseismic surface ruptures along the Weitin Thrust occurred in a Mw 8.0 event in 2000 and in a Mw 7.7 event in 2019. The ruptures overlap along a 20-km long portion, with 3-4 m of slip (Fig. 2).
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (Nov 2019)
2019-11-01 | in Paper | one responseToday we have a number of studies on “classic” paleoseismology, but also a fair share of tsunami and historical seismicity/archaeoseismology research. Plus, some very interesting papers on methods and concepts. Not to forget the first one in the list that presents an extremely useful surface rupture database. I may write a long blog post on this one, soon. Enjoy reading!
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (Sep 2019)
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (July 2019)
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (April 2019)
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (March 2019)
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (Jan 2019)
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New papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics (Dec 2018)
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Call for papers for Spec Iss: “New Perspectives in the Definition/Evaluation of Seismic Hazard through Analysis of the Environmental Effects Induced by Earthquakes”
2018-11-16 | in PaperA Special Issue in Geosciences will focus on New Perspectives in the Definition/Evaluation of Seismic Hazard through Analysis of the Environmental Effects Induced by Earthquakes. The call for papers is now open. This Special Issue aims to collect all contributions that using different methodologies can integrate new data produced with multi-disciplinary and innovative methods. These methodologies are essential for the identification and characterization of seismically active areas, and for the development of new hazard models, obtained using different survey techniques. The contributions related to seismic-induced effects in volcanic areas (currently not well-examined) will also be particularly appreciated, since in such areas even high-energy earthquakes can induce both surface faulting and secondary effects, as recently observed for the volcano-tectonic earthquake of Md = 4 that occurred on August 21, 2017 in the Island of Ischia (Campania, Southern Italy).