The Tien Shan takes up about 20 mm/yr of N-S shortening as a result of the India-Eurasia convergence. Recent paleoseismological studies have shown that the shortening is accommodated by a large number of faults, whose slip rates are relatively low. Although the historical earthquake catalogues only reach back a few hundred years, we know that the Tien Shan has seen some of the strongest intracontinetal quakes world-wide with magnitudes exceeding M8. Paleoseismological studies have revealed a large number of surface-rupturing earthquakes, too. But the question is: Do all these known faults rupture in strong earthquakes? In a recent paper, my colleagues and I argue that there is at least one major fault in the Northern Tien Shan that is creeping (Mackenzie et al., 2018). more

These are the latest papers on paleoseismology, earthquakes, and active tectonics. Enjoy!

• Mackenzie, D., Walker, R., Abdrakhmatov, K., Campbell, G., Carr, A., Gruetzner, C., … & Rizza, M. (2018). A creeping intracontinental thrust fault: Past and present slip-rates on the northern edge of the Tien Shan, Kazakhstan. Geophysical Journal International.
• Brooks, G. R. (2018). Deglacial record of palaeoearthquakes interpreted from mass transport deposits at three lakes near Rouyn‐Noranda, north‐western Quebec, Canada. Sedimentology.
• Jay, C. N., Flesch, L. M., & Bendick, R. O. (2018). Kinematics and dynamics of the Pamir, Central Asia: Quantifying the roles of continental subduction in force balance. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

more

Dear friends and colleagues,

Please save the date for the 10th PATA Days in Israel: 19-27 September, 2019.

The pre-conference field trip from 19-22 September will lead to the Dead Sea and to Jerusalem, and we will see seismites, active faults, archaeoseismology, sinkholes, lake levels and tectonics. The main conference will be held from 22-27 September in Caesarea and the Sea of Galilee, including presentations, posters and half-day field trips focused on tsunamis, archaeoseismology and active faults!

See you all in sunny Israel!

The meeting will be supported by the INQUA/TERPRO Focus Group Earthquake Geology and Seismic Hazards (EGSHaz).

USGS is currently advertising an interesting position for a paleoseismologist – permanent and full time.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/507754800

Opening and closing date: 08/10/2018 to 09/10/2018 (I am not sure if that means 10 August to 10 September or 8-9 October…)

Duties:

–Perform field-based paleoseismic research to characterize the chronology of past earthquakes or slip rates on faults in the greater San Andreas fault system in northern California.

–Perform geological research to characterize crustal deformation in northern California and elsewhere. more

A couple of interesting positions are currently open for earthquake geology, tectonics, and paleoseismology people:

• PostDoc in active tectonics, structural geology, tectonic geomorphology and/or paleoseismology, GFZ Potsdam
• University Professor of Tectonics/Structural Geology, Uni Mainz
• Associate Professor in Structural Geology, Uni Oslo
• Two permanent research positions in Geodynamics at the Spanish Research Council
• Five permanent research positions for the Spanish Geological Survey (IGME) Shallow geothermics, geohazards, structural geology and tectonics, subsurface geology
• Tectonophysics TT job at CSU Fullerton
• Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Uni Brighton
• Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Geology, Uni Brighton
• Teaching Fellow in Physical Geography, Uni Hull
• PostDoc position “Tectonic and metamorphic evolution of the Mariana convergent margin with emphasis on fault- and fluid-systems in the Mariana forearc” at Uni Graz
• PhD positions on earthquakes, seismic hazard at the University of Camerino, Italy
• PhD or Post-Doc position ” interdisciplinary project to quantify and model microstructural evolution in hydrothermal crack-seal veins” at RWTH Aachen University
• Postdoctoral Geophysicist/ Seismologist, GFZ Potsdam

This time we have an impressive variety of earthquake study sites: Turkey, China, USA, Tadjik Basin, Italy, Japan, Sumatra, Himalayas, Spain, Mexico, Balkans, Mars, laboratory. Who could possibly ask for more? Plus some interesting work on fault physics. Check out the latest papers on earthquakes, active tectonics, and paleoseismicity:

more

On Thursday 28^th June, I had the opportunity, together with over 40 students and Early Career Researchers, to attend the full-day summer school organized during the 9^th PATA Days Congress in Possidi, Greece.

Gotha speakers gave short lectures on a variety of topics; well, it’s quite strange realizing that behind a book cover or a long list of papers you’ve read there’s a real person with a face, 2 hands and 2 eyes… but that’s what happened to me.

Location, location, location

As geoscientists, we all know the importance of a proper location… the Possidi Holiday Resort is just 20 m from the beach! Even the storm Hera did not prevent us to go for a swim.

The Possidi Beach. Photo by Sofia Christoforidou.

The summer school

1. The first lecturer was Klaus Reicherter, dealing with tsunamis in the Mediterranean and in Greece and highlighting the inherently multidisciplinary nature of such a research.
2. Tom Rockwell focused on strike-slip fault with worldwide examples – S. Andreas, North Anatolian, Great Sumatra and Dead Sea Faults – and field-based results.
3. Jim McCalpin spoke about the use of paleoseismology in seismic hazard assessment, giving us a bucket of real-life examples, experiences, good (and less good) practices. And I learned that when building a logic tree, a 5% probability is not denied to (almost) everybody.
4. Shmulik Marco showed on- and off-fault archaeoseismological evidences and soft-sediment deformations along the Dead Sea Fault. Well, it was just a small tasting on how astonishing is going to be the next PATA meeting in Israel in 2019. Plus (in my opinion) the best tip of the day: keep good relations with archaeologists, you never know what they will discover under the dirt.
5. Then, Spyros Pavlides dealt with active faulting in multi-fractured seismic areas, and specifically the Aegean region. Just in case you are wondering if there’s something simple there, ehm… no, you should consider multiple tectonic phases, inherited structures, the presence of normal faulting, subduction zones and volcanic activity all together.
6. We definitely changed perspective with Manuel Sintubin, speaking about earthquake risk communication and the need to move from a risk message model toward a risk dialogue model; this is a super-important topic not always addressed in the proper way, with possible huge consequences.
7. Ioannis Papanikolaou spoke about the seismic landscape, extraction of slip rates and fault specific SHA with tens of examples from Greece and Italy and useful tips on advantages and disadvantages of each methodological approach.
8. Finally, Georgios Syrides gave a lecture on sea level change indicators. Well, I’m very ignorant on this because simply it’s not my bag, so I learned lots of things (bonus: super-cool photos!).

Here’s the PATA team! (yes, I’m quite mad with football and the World Cup was ongoing…)

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that” – John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

I saw top scientists jump on their seats when other top scientists called “small” a M 6 or “moderate” a M > 7 earthquake. Or when a trench revealing 5 events was called a “short record”. We all have different perspectives, opinions and experiences. And with “we” I mean all of us, from top scientists down to undergraduate students. I think it’s a richness and we should take care of it.

Final remarks: thanks!

The success of the summer school and the whole 9^th PATA Days meeting would not have been possible without the contribution and efforts of the Thessaloniki University staff. A big thank to all of you and see you in the next PATA meeting!

Many more photos taken during PATA 2018 are at http://bit.ly/PATA18_photos

Group photo of the summer school participants. Photo by Sofia Christoforidou.

The conference “30 years after the Spitak Earthquake: Experience and Perspectives” will be held in Armenia from 3-7 December, 2018. Abstract deadline is 15 September. The first circular has just been released, download the PDF here. The abstract template in MS Word format is available here.

A lot of interesting papers have been published in the past month, including studies on recent moderate to strong earthquakes, geomorphology, fault physics, and some classic paleoseismology. These are the latest articles on paleoseismology and active tectonics – enjoy! more

Dear friends of earthquake geology and paleoseismology,

Due to recent changes in General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we need to ask you to sign up again for the TERPRO mailing list online via
https://inqua.org/commissions/terpro/join
INQUA is committed to the standards of the GDPR, which means that explicit consent is required to receive news and updates from TERPRO.
By signing up you will become a member of TERPRO without any obligations, you’ll just receive news about the INQUA commission on Terrestrial Processes.

Please note that this is necessary even if you sent an email to Daniel Krohling earlier. If you have signed up already, everything is fine. We apologise for this inconvenience.

INQUA will very soon begin the process of calling for nominations and the election for all Commission Officers for the 2019-2023 period. In order to participate,
you must have signed up via the website, these are the lists INQUA will use. The future direction of the Commission can only reflect the will of the community
at large if the community is engaged and has signed up.

Thanks for your understanding and all the best,

Christoph, Petra & Ioannis
(on behalf of the IFG EGSHaz: http://www.earthquakegeology.com/index.php)