A special session on Toppled and Rotated Objects in Recent, Historic, and Prehistoric Earthquakes will be held during the upcoming 2017 Annual Meeting of the Seismological Society of America in Denver, Colorado from 18-20 April 2017. Session Chairs will be Klaus-G. Hinzen and Rasool Anooshehpoor.
The main purpose of the session is to bring together researchers with diverse backgrounds (e.g., seismology, engineering, history, heritage conservation) who are interested in the behavior of objects, monuments, or simple structures during earthquakes and the stories which deformed, rotated or toppled objects can tell. The session will cover all aspects of toppled or rotated objects or simple structures which have suffered heavy deformation or damage during earthquakes. Topics will include: (1) observations, (2) documentation, (3) model building, (4) restoration, (5) mapping, and (6) correlation with geology.
Recent earthquake research has postulated correlation between the reaction of objects (monuments, columns, tombstones, etc.) and the seismic source in addition to local effects due to geological site conditions. As the laws of physics are time invariant, knowledge gained in reconnaissance surveys from well-studied instrumental earthquakes can reveal information about ground motions during historical and prehistorical earthquakes. Particular interest will be directed to man-made structures; however, due to similarities of the techniques used to study precariously balanced rocks and speleothems, contributions from these fields are also welcome.
The deadline for all proposed presentations, invited or otherwise, is 5 pm PST January 11, 2016. All abstracts must be submitted by the deadline. Submitting abstracts through the online submission system only (There is a submission fee of $80 for regular attendees, $40 for students).
There are lots of other interesting sessions on earthquake geology, paleoseismology and related topics at the SSA meeting, make sure to check the full programme: http://meetings.seismosoc.org/special-sessions/