Several new studies have been published recently on old earthquakes and their geological footprint – time to list them and to recommend reading. Additionally, today’s paper digest also lists several articles which are not about paleoseismology, but geoethics. These papers were published in a special volume of GSL. They cover subjects that many paleoseismologists will have dealt with in the past or are likely to deal with in the future – seismic risk perception, science communication, public outreach, and communicating uncertainties. One paper is dedicated to the L’Aquila trial. I find it very telling that this issue is not open access. Obviously, strengthening “public trust in geosciences” has still a long way to go…
Here are the latest papers:
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The Canyonlands National Park, Utah, is famous for its beautiful landscape and spectacular landforms. For many geoscientists it is also well-known as a sandstone reservoir analogue and as a tourist you’ll often run into groups of geologists on field trips. It’s a matter of debate how and how fast the beautiful grabens in the Needles Fault zone formed – these are large arcuate canyons several tens of kilometres in length, paralleling the Colorado River. In a new paper we present results from remote sensing, mapping, and georadar (GPR). Our aim was to better understand the coupling between deformation, erosion and deposition in such an active system. Based on our findings we developed a model of graben formation and describe the geometry of the dilatant faults at depth. We argue that either the grabens are older than previously assumed or that sedimentation rates were much higher in the Pleistocene.
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Summer time is publishing time! Lots of new papers are out, today we have
- archaeoseismology & rotated objects;
- paleoseismology in Korea, China, & Portugal;
- trench photomosaicking and PBRs;
- lots of tectonic geomorphology (i.e., Ximena’s paper on the Carboneras fault where I did my diploma thesis in 2004…);
- news from the Balochistan earthquake; and
- tsunamis.
Enjoy reading and tell us if something is missing!
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The 2015 GSA Annual Meeting will be held in early November in Baltimore and since the deadline is approaching (11 August) it is time to check paleoseismology sessions. One of the many interesting sessions will be chaired by our colleagues Mark Quigley and Tim Stahl: “T186 – Estimating the Timing and Characteristics of Continental Earthquakes from Geologic Data”. Tim told me that there will be “some great invited speakers lined up speaking on paleoliquefaction, lake varve deposits and San Andreas fault paleoseismology“. more
Lots of paleoseismology and tsunami studies are currently being published… Here’s my update on the latest papers, including: Surface ruptures, seismic swarms, tsunamites, Asian tectonics, slip rates and archaeoseismology. Plus: A very interesting study on the 1911 Chon-Kemin M8.0 earthquake in the Kazakhstan/Kyrgyzstan border region, the source process reconstruced from analogue seismograms. Thanks to Ramon Arrowsmith for pointing me to this one. Enjoy!
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Our colleague Tim Dawson from the California Geological Survey (CGS) pointed me to this website, where reports and data on the Napa Earthquake of 24 August, 2014, are collected. There is a new document available for download, the EERI report at the top of the page, which adds some previously unpublished information, especially on the observed afterslip. Tim writes that “afterslip along the central 6-7 km of the rupture is about 35 cm (whereas it was initially only about 20 cm the day of the earthquake).” The afterslip seems to be still ongoing and is monitored with InSAR. 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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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
The Sea Level Research laboratory in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island is looking to recruit a PhD student to work on an NSF funded project focused on paleoseismology of the Cascadia subduction zone.
The project involves collaboration with Rutgers University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the United States Geological Survey. The position can start as early as September 1st 2014. more
The SSA 2014 conference in Anchorage, Alaska is over and so is the post-meeting excursion. Our friend and colleague Gösta was attending this field trip on the environmental effects of the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 and he sent us some nice images and a brief description of this trip. This is the second part of his report. more
