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
Annals of Geophysics (former Annali di Geofisica) published a special volume “Geoethics and geological culture. Reflections from the Geoitalia Conference 2011“. This is pretty interesting for us bloggers, topics include:
- Geoethics and geological culture: methods, goals and values able to influence society
- Geoethical implications in risks and geo-resources management
- Communication and education related to geosciences in a geoethical perspective
- Geoheritage and geodiversity as values for sustainability
Even more interesting for me is a special issue yet to come: “The Emilia seismic sequence of May-June, 2012: preliminary data and results”. Paper submission deadline: July 22, 2012. more
Callan Bentley from Mountain Beltway had the idea to list the 101 American Geo-Sites mentioned in Albert B. Dickas’ book and to mark those he has already visited. The whole thing became kind of popular in the geoblogosphere, and this KMZ by one of Callan’s readers allows to explore the 101 outcrops one definitely has to visit in the US. So now here’s my list, in bold the places I’ve visited (as you will see, there are far much still to be seen than I’ve already visited!):
- Wetumpka Crater, Alabama
- Exit Glacier, Alaska
- Antelope Canyon, Arizona
- Meteor Crater, Arizona
- Monument Valley, Arizona
- Prairie Creek Pipe, Arkansas
- Wallace Creek, California
- Racetrack Playa, California
- Devils Postpile, California
- Rancho La Brea, California more
Klaus and me went to the SSA 2012 annual meeting in San Diego in April. The conference was great and very focussed. I really like that kind of rather small meetings, where almost everything is interesting for me. I saw a lot of interesting posters and great talks and especially liked the paleoseismology and archeoseismology sessions (of course!).
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Last week was really weird for earthquake geologists. We have seen one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured and another handfull of major events, all of them showing strike-slip fault movement. Manuel came up with the perfect description at his Planeet Aarde Geoblog: It’s strike-slip week on Planet Earth. more
Folks at Arizona State University and San Diego State University are conducting a study to test the repeatability, accuracy, and precision of lateral displacement measurements derived from high-resolution topographic Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. Please take a few minutes to participate! If you have any questions about the research or would like to use the materials as a classroom exercise, please feel free to email Barrett at jbsalisb@asu.edu.
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Dear fellows,
please stop littering the beaches all over the world. Seriously. I like beaches and I guess so do you, so please, take your trash with you. Last week I’ve been to Oman and worked in the Al Sawadi area, where you have a great coast line (which will be spoiled by a huge hotel-apartment-something complex, soon). The only thing was, you almost couldn’t see the sand because it was covered with oil cans, plastic bags, bottles, tires, more oil cans, buckets, toilets (!), packaging shit, cups, and oil cans. Please, stop that.
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In Evelyn’s one-picture-per-day-to-save-some-time-before-Christmas-series, my contribution today is from the Canyonlands, Utah. It’s a view to the north from Needles Outpost campsite, directly at the boarder of the National Park. The reddish sandstones give a beautiful contrast to the dark-blue sky. The picture was taken during the night, there were always that incredible view and millions of stars. No comparison to light-polluted Germany! The tents, which have been our home for three weeks, were completely messed with the ubiquitous red dust after that three weeks… more
Here’s the Wednesday Geology Picture as part of Evelyn’s meme. Close to the Arches National Park in Utah there is Potash, a bizarre place with saltworks that shimmer in incredible colours. Here, salt is leached from the underground and then dried in the sun. The roads that lead to the Dead Horse State Park have to cross little creeks at times, where the salt precipitated and formed glittering crystals. I had the opportunity to do some research in that area with my great colleagues Heijn and Michael in May this year. more
A small comfort for all those who have missed the AGU2011 fall meeting (and so did I) might be that some sessions are now available on video for free. The AGU session on demand page has lots of videos, among them four sessions on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. So if you’re ready for ~8 hrs of earthquake talks, you should definitely have a look.
