ESC working group
Marc Ollé López MSc Thesis on “New palaeoseismic data for the characterisation of a complete transect on the Alhama de Murcia Fault (SE Spain)” awarded with the Jorge Civis second prize of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain.
Ten months after the kick-of-meeting of the TREAD project in Chieti (Italy), the European team, closely interconnected with the Fault2SHA initiative, will meet again. The members of the project, dedicated to finding new ways to better understand seismogenic faults and to improve seismic hazard analysis within the Euromediterranean region will meet in Aix-en-Provence (France), during the First Meeting of the project, which will take place during next Wednesday 29 November.
This appointment will allow the members to have a general overview of the first steps on each of the work packages and on the 11 PhD projects. The event will follow a 2-days workshop, including field work, where the main protagonists of TREAD, the 11 PhD students, will meet for the first time. These students were selected before last summer more than 600 applicants from all over the world, through an exhaustive selection process involving specific panels for each of the positions. They come from Asia (Iran, Kazakhstan), Europe (France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands) and South America (Colombia) and will follow a 3 to 4 years PhD program designed to cover specific aspects grouped into the three main thematic blocks of TREAD; 1) Earthquake Observations, 2) Physical Properties and Processes, and 3) Earthquake Hazard and Risk. They won’t do it alone, but as part of a collective and interactive research that will include continuous online meetings to share results, problems and new questions; monthly lectures with experts from the three areas (available here); two on-site training schools and 4 workshops (see the general program). The first these, which will take place next week, will focus on the challenges of identifying earthquake sources in slowly deforming regions and will include a visit to the 1909 M6 earthquake (Traveresse region) as well as specific training in the identification and characterisation of fault sources and geological effects; advanced geomorphological (photogrammetry, GIS analysis,..) and geophysical tools, scaling relationships, and an overview of the Mediterranean tectonics, among others.
These pre-doctoral researchers don’t know each other yet, and don’t know yet that they will be the backbone of the project; at the time that they will be looking to solve the key questions and challenges proposed, they will indirectly connect a wide network of specialists that form part of the beneficiary and partner institutions (part of the consortium). To know more about what we are doing, follow the project updates in the social media and the web page. We are preparing short capsules to reveal the multiple sides of the TREAD project.
Instagram: tread_msca
X: @TREAD_horizon
web: https://tread-horizon.eu/
Our thoughts go out to the Moroccan populations affected by the powerful earthquake of September 8, 2023. Fault2sha, a European Seismological Commision working group, with numerous members working in a variety of fields related to seismic hazard assessment would like to reach out to our Maroccan colleagues to offer any help, remote or in the field, that may help understand the tectonic context of this earthquake and to improve our collective knowledge in this region, a key issues for the challenges facing the reconstruction ahead.
In the framework of the italian PRIN2020 Project “Fault segmentation and seismotectonics of active thrust systems: the Northern Apennines and Southern Alps laboratories for new Seismic Hazard Assessments in northern Italy” (NASA4SHA), the paleoseismology research group coordinated by Maria Eliana Poli (University of Udine), including geologists and paleoseismologists from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Emanuela Falcucci, Stefano Gori), University of Udine (Giovanni Paiero, Andrea Marchesini) and University of Ferrara (Giulia Patricelli, Riccardo Caputo), dug a trench across the eastern Southalpine front, investigating the Budoia-Aviano active thrust front.
Thanks to multiscale preliminary investigation, performed with geophysicists of the University of Ferrara (Enzo Rizzo), the paleoseismological study brought to light extraordinary recordings of past coseismic deformation associated to linear morphogenic earthquakes, in an area that since a few years ago was considered affected by minor seismicity. A set of reverse faults has been indeed exposed by the trench.
Now, other trenches will be made parallel to the first one; the challenge is to possibly associate this new paleoseismological evidence of coseismic surface displacement to historical seismic events of the region, thus contributing to more reliable estimates of the seismogenic and capability potential of the active faults of NE-Italy. In line with this, we are evaluating the possibility to make the site accessible for scientific and public awareness purposes.
Eliana Poli and the working group
The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will organize a webinar on May 30, dealing with recent advances in probabilistic fault displacement hazard assessment for nuclear installations in light of geological reconnaissance findings.
The webinar will provide an overview of the contribution of collected field evidence for principal and distributed ruptures; present the geological reconnaissance survey findings for the 6 February 2023, Turkiye earthquake sequence; provide information on IAEA activities regarding PFDHA including results of a benchmarking study.
Find more details and register here!
We are pleased to announce a kick-off meeting of the Thematic Lab on Fault Displacement Hazard, to be held on Wed. 14th June 2023; 17:00 – 18:30 CET (15-16:30 UTC; 12-13:30 ART; 8-9:30 PST)
This first meeting will:
If you have a topic, or results from your research or experiences that can help the discussion and interactions, please propose your talk at the meeting.
If you know a colleague working on topics of potential interest for FDH, who does not know about the Lab, please invite her/him to join the Lab, or simply invite her/him to have a talk during a future meeting.
Please, confirm your attendance to the kick-off meeting by sending an e-mail to Francesca (francesca.ferrario@uninsubria.it), so we will share with you the link to attend the meeting.
Kind Regards,
the coordinating team of the Fault2SHA FDH thematic Lab
Paolo Boncio, Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti – Pescara, IT, paolo.boncio@unich.it
Francesca Ferrario, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, IT francesca.ferrario@uninsubria.it
Stéphane Baize, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, FR, stephane.baize@irsn.fr
The deadline to submit your application for MSCA-DN TREAD project PhD positions has been postponed. The new deadline is 30th of April. The topics range from fault mechanics and structural geology, to machine learning seismicity monitoring and modelling, to dynamic rupture modelling, seismic hazard and risk estimation, and much more. Visit https://tread-horizon.eu and submit your application. A new generation of earthquake researchers is waiting for you!
In the wake of the devasting 6th of February 2023 earthquake that hit a very wide region along the Turkey/Syria border, the members of the European Seismological Commission Fault2sha Working group wish to express their support to the families of the victims and all those doing their utmost today to continue to rescue and help the affected population. In silence, in the backstage, we continue our activities to improve knowledge and create synergies in the hope that tomorrow we shall never again witness similar catastrophes.
To appreciate some of our actions, we encourage you to visit the two new thematic labs created following the 6th Fault2SHA Workshop in Chieti:
We also encourage you to visit our JOB OFFERS announcing the call for 11 PhD positions, in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network of the Project TREAD. The selection will be carried out in various European institutions. We hope young people from the devastated areas can participate to the selection too, to build together a new generation of Fault2SHA scientists.
We are ready for the 6th Workshop of the Fault2SHA ESC Working Group. It will be held in Chieti on January 19-20, 2023. It is the first in-person meeting after years; it follows the kickoff meeting of the new Horizon Europe MSCA-DN project TREAD, leaded by the University of Chieti-Pescara. TREAD will open 11 phD positions in Europe soon.
About 45 experienced and early career researchers are expected; key-note lectures will be recorded for the community. Enjoy the PRE-WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS, and the mountains’ view!
A year of Peace, Health, and Joy.
Check our job offers, and follow the Fault2SHA events.
