The 13th International INQUA Meeting on Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics and Archaeoseismology (PATA Days) was held from 2-5 February, 2026, in Antigua Guatemala. We commemorated the catastrophic M7.5 earthquake of 4 February, 1976. A pre-meeting field trip from 30 Jan – 1 Feb took the participants to several paleoseismological and archaeoseismological sites along the Motagua Fault, the plate boundary between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After the meeting, another field trip focussed on the neotectonics of the triple junction west of Guatemala City. 16 ECRs and DCRs were supported with INQUA travel grants organized by TERPRO’s project CHAMP. Here’s a short summary about the field trips and the meeting. 

This is a guest blog by Marco Caciagli from INGV. 

Following the strong (Mw=7.8)  Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence of February 6, 2023 (Fig. 1), within the framework of the collaboration between the Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC) and the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), a delegation of earthquake geologists, specializing in the collection of coseismic surface effects and representing the DPC’s specific competence centers (INGV, ISPRA, and OGS), conducted a technical mission to Türkiye from May 6 to 13, 2023. This first field survey, carried out in preparation for the subsequent mission planned for October 2023 by the European Task Force “EuQuaGe”, was organized and coordinated by the INGV EMERGEO operational group.

The field survey covered more than 180 km along the central sector of the East Anatolian Fault Zone (Kahramanmaraş‑Pazarcık fault segment; Fig. 1), where coseismic measurements were collected and documented through ground-based photography and drone imagery.

The position is funded within the Polish National Science Centre (NCN) SONATA BIS project “Enhancing paleoseismological record through multi-methods cave deformation analysis tested in diverse Hellenides tectonic regimes”. The project aims to develop methods for using speleothems as indicators of earthquake environmental effects and their application in paleoseismological research.

They are looking for a candidate with experience in numerical modelling (FEM) and/or experience in paleoseismic research or seismological analyses, who will be responsible, among others, for:
• coordinating and preparing input data for FEM analyses and performing numerical modelling of speleothems,
• comparing the results with previous studies and preparing scientific publications.

The position will be based at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, with the possibility of partial remote work, and in collaboration with research teams from Greece and Austria. Within the project, 2–3 field trips to caves in Greece are planned (including the collection of lidar data and speleothem samples).

Detailed information about the project and the application procedure can be found here:
https://skk.erecruiter.pl/Offer.aspx?oid=4778775&cfg=0596d66a80b044cea9e98c4a71799d37&fromSkk=1773233949295&ejoId=524926&ejorId=215840&comId=20067605

A new month, a new list. Those who attended the PATA Days in Guatemala (a report will follow!) will recognise the first three papers. There is a lot more interesting science to read this time. Enjoy and let us know if we’ve missed something. Oh – and many thanks to all of you who send links to their papers once published.

Several Special Issues (SI) are currently open for contributions in paleoseismology, active tectonics, and related fields:

BSSA: Quantifying the Long-term Prehistoric Earthquake Record: Advances and Applications. Deadline: 1 June, 2026. Guest editors: Rich Briggs, Alex Hatem, Yann Klinger, Nicola Litchfield, Dee Ninis, & Mark Stirling. https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/calls-papers/bssa-call-for-papers-10/

BSSA: Complex Multi-Fault Earthquakes. Deadline: 1 July, 2026. Guest editors: Ryo Ando, Zoë Mildon, Kevin Milner, Vasiliki Mouslopoulou, & Andy Nicol. https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/calls-papers/bssa-call-for-papers-11/

Earthquake Research Advances: Active Tectonics of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Case Studies on Earthquake, Volcano and Tsunami Induced Hazards. Deadline: 31 March, 2026. Guest editors: Tuncay Taymaz, Aldo Zollo, Hongfeng Yang, Teng Wang, Andrea Billi, Daniele Cheloni. https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/earthquake-research-advances/call-for-papers/active-tectonics-of-the-eastern-mediterranean-region-case-studies-on-earthquake-volcano-and-tsunami-induced-hazards/

Here at the PATA Days meeting in Guatemala, Franz Livio talked about a huge paleoseismology project targeting the Rieti Basin in Italy. He said we’d have to read the paper in order to appreciate all the details, and here we are – the paper has just been published. Of course there are many more really interesting studies that came out recently. Enjoy reading!

By Jacek and Christoph

Paleoseismology was developed in places where faults behave well. In California, Anatolia, or along major plate-boundary faults, earthquakes repeatedly break the surface in rather short recurrence intervals, and they form long scarps. In such settings, tectonic geomorphology, subsurface data, and empirical scaling laws between rupture lengths and offset tend to point in the same direction. These regions have been essential for developing paleoseismic methods—but they have also shaped our expectations in ways that are not always transferable to other settings.
Mature orogens and slowly deforming mountain belts are different. Fault slip rates are low and earthquake recurrence intervals are long, often tens of thousands of years. Erosion, solifluction, soil creep, and other types of mass movements modify the landscape faster than tectonics can do. This is especially true in areas that are glaciated during the ice ages. As a result, the geological record of faulting is incomplete by default. Scarps are degraded, stratigraphic markers are rare, and the link between surface morphology and fault kinematics is often ambiguous. None of this means that these regions are tectonically inactive. It means that their activity is harder to read.

This is the latest list of papers on paleoearthquakes and related fields. Enjoy reading and let us know in case we’ve missed something. 

This time we have studies from all over the world, among them a surprisingly large number of papers on historical data. Enjoy reading and let us know in case we’ve missed something.

This time there are a lot of papers on the active tectonics of the Mediterranean region in our list, but we also have interesting studies from Central and Eastern Asia, the Caribbean, and N America. Plus, a couple of methodological papers. Enjoy reading!