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:
Fault2SHA Post-earthquake Reconnaissance Lab; many new Fault2sha members have joined this laboratory, motivated by the occurrence of the recent earthquake in Turkey. Each one ready to help in presence or remotely.
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 new Horizon Europe MSCA-DN project has been funded by the European Commision.
Project Title: TREAD, data and pRocesses in sEismic hAzarD
Project Coordinator: Bruno Pace (Università Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
The aim of TREAD is to train a new generation of researchers to tackle the challenges of earthquake forecasting in complex tectonic settings using integrated observations and physics.
The TREAD objectives are:
(i) to develop a novel integrative approach to seismic hazard analysis in Europe and the Mediterranean from small-scale laboratory experiments to large-scale observations.
(ii) to establish physics-based earthquake modelling bridging time scales from millions of years to fractions of a second in complex tectonic settings.
(iii) to improve the link between earthquake geology, computational modelling and hazard and risk assessment with a focus on the needs of governments, industry and scientific stakeholders.
To reach these objectives the TREAD consortium comprises 14 academic and 8 non-academic institutions, of which 8 private partners, of high scientific level, from 7 European countries, covering cutting-edge knowledge and expertise in observational, experimental and modelling fields:
Università degli Studi di Chieti-Pescara (Ud’A), Italy
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
Universiteit Utrecht (UU), Netherlands
Fondazione GEM (GEM), Italy
Université Grenoble-Alpes (UGA), France
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Germany
Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Spain
Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD), Italy
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Switzerland
Institut de Sureté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection (IRSN), France
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Italy
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Italy
Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany
Institut de Physique du Globe (IPGP), France
Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HZDR), Germany
Willis Tower Watson (Willis), United Kingdom
IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN), France
Eléctricité de France (EDF), France
Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca (UNIMIB), Italy
Munich REb (MUNCHRE), Germany
TNO (TNO), Netherlands
TRE-Altamira (TRE), Italy
Aix-Marseille Université (AMU), France
11 PhD positions will be available soon: HERE the details.
A new coordinated project, composed by three subprojects led by fault2sha members of the Eastern Betics fautl2SHA-lab has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2021-124155NB-C31).
Project Title: SHaKER, Seismic Hazard Knowledge for Earthquake Resilience
IPs: José A. Álvarez Gómez, José J. Martínez Díaz (UCM, subproject model_SHaKER), Carolina Canora (UAM, subproject paleo_SHaKER) and Alejandra Staller (UPM, subproject Geo_SHaKER)
The main objective of the SHaKER project is to advance in the knowledge of the seismogenic processes of seismic sources with the final objective of improving urban resilience to seismic disasters. To achieve this, we delve into the characterization of seismogenic source models with the integration and correlation of a number of disciplines in an interdisciplinar and multidisciplinar approach. To characterize the seismic sources we will use geological, geochemical, geotechnical, geodetic and geophysical data in addition to the development of numerical modelling and data analyses through machine-learning techniques. The numerical modelling will allow us to get insight into the complex, nonlinear, relations between the faults of the system, but also including external geological processes and tectonics in the long term evolution of fault systems.
These seismic source models are the basis for the development of new seismic and tsunami hazard and risk assessment studies, whose results will be essential to establish new proposals for improving urban resilience. The SHaKER project will help to estimate the faults seismic cycle and transient behaviours and characterize those seismogenic sources, including their kinematics and mechanical properties. These data will help us to quantitatively assess the sensitivity to uncertainties, thus contributing to reach the UN SDG11 in terms of the improved assessment of seismic risk, making the cities more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. In concordance with this aim we will develop also better assessments of earthquake triggered slope instabilities, earthquake surface ruptures and liquefaction.
We will continue the studies carried out in previous projects in two seismically active and densely populated zones, with different tectonic behaviours and transcurrent faults of special interest: the Eastern Betic Shear Zone (EBSZ) and the El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ). The EBSZ is one of the areas with the highest seismicity in the Iberian Peninsula where the largest populations (Lorca, Totana, Alhama de Murcia) are located directly above the fault traces. The need for a detailed study of the behaviour and geological history of these faults became evident after the 2011 Lorca earthquake, moderate magnitude event that caused important damage. The ESFZ is a system of strike-slip faults with significant seismic activity and a medium to high deformation rate, aligned within the volcanic arc, where a large part of the country’s population is concentrated. In this case, we will try to improve the knowledge of the ESFZ in the less studied areas, expanding our study to the Nicaraguan and Guatemalan volcanic arcs (including the Jalpatagua fault).
The SHaKER project will be backed by a multidisciplinary research team made up of geologists, geochemists, geophysicists, mathematicians, civil engineers and geomatics engineers. This guarantees the integration and correlation of diverse data sources, as well as the establishment of different approaches to assess the seismic hazard and its relationship and influence on the seismic risk and future urban planning. The results of the project will help to reinforce the resilience of cities in terms of seismic risk, generating products and tools that will be useful for public institutions and decision-makers, who work in emergency planning before de disaster.
The Fault2SHA Ex-Com, during its first meeting of 2022, selected this TOP 5 ones.
If you like them, pleas put a like on this post, and stay tuned.
If you do not like them, please, let us know, and suggest your ones!
Organize new Fault2SHA Workshops (LIVE)
Establish other Laboratories
Continue the Learning Series
Strenghten the communities (with a new Jammin’ Series)
Update the website (and social channel too)
The Fault2SHA Ex-Com would like to
welcome José Antonio Álvarez Gómez as a new member. His broad interests in many of the topics discussed within Fault2SHA will certainly enhance the link between fault data provider and fault data modelers.
thank Julián García-Mayordomo who has decided to leave the Ex-Com. Julian has been an active member of the Fault2sha Ex-Com since the creation of the Working Group. He will remain a very active member of the working group, in particular with our Colombian collegues. We wish him all the best for the future.
We are excited to announce that a new project based on the Fault2SHA approach has been funded, led by two of the fault2sha members and involving mostly researchers of the Eastern Betics fautl2SHA-lab (but not only!).
Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-119772RB-I00)
Project Title: NSOURCES: New approaches to earthquake source characterization and their effective integration into fault-based seismic hazard models. Case studies in areas of low-to-intermediate activity of eastern Iberia
IPs: Raimon Pallàs and Eulàlia Masana (Univ. of Barcelona)
Main Partners: From Spain: Universidad Complutense de Madrid; IGME; Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Centro Tecnológico del Mármol, Piedra y Materiales; ICGC; Centro Nacional de Investigación en Evolución Humana (CENIEH); SOLDATA IBERIA S.A.; Abroad: IRSN and Univ. of Montpellier (France); Univ. degli Studi G. d’Annunzio-Chieti-Pescara (Italy), UNAM (Mexico); San Diego State University (USA), Helmholtz Institute (Germany); Univ. of Manchester (UK)
The Eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula is one of the most seismically active areas in Europe. Although at a smaller rate compared with other active settings, highly damaging earthquakes also occur in Western Europe, where large uncertainties in seismic hazard combine with low societal awareness to result in increased seismic risk. In Eastern Iberia, some of the seismogenic sources remain poorly studied. This is often due to the subtle expression of active slow faults, especially those located in highly erosive environments or not associated to large nor active fluvial drainages.
In this project, seismic hazard assessment of Eastern Iberia aims to be improved by incorporating new and more precise data on the source seismic parameters of three study areas; the Eastern Betic Shear Zone (EBSZ), High Pyrenees (HP) and the Baix Ebre basin (BEB). The main targets are the Maladeta-Bedous fault system (in the HP), the Palomares fault (in the EBSZ) and the Baix Ebre fault (in the BEB), among others. The improved characterization of their seismic parameters will be achieved with a paleoseismological approach enhanced with new tools in geochronology, geodesy and geophysics, that include i) accurate fault slip-transects and refined fault mapping using LiDAR data, photogrammetry and field work; ii) combination of chronological tools as Schmid hammer, cosmogenic isotopes and violet stimulated luminescence that will sum up with more classical methods; iii) refined location of the paleoseismic event horizons with the use of hyperspectral images; iv) obtention of new geodetic (GPS and CGPS) and InSAR data; v) geophysical characterization of the fault geometry by a joint interpretation approach (Reflection Seismics, Magnetotellurics, Electrical Tomography and GPR).
As a final aim, all the new information on source parameters will serve to perform new probabilistic seismic hazard calculations (fault-system approach in the EBSZ and single-faults in the HP and BEB). Along with this new fault-based PSHA results, educational and information strategies will be undertaken to increase the local population awareness on seismic hazard. The project will make possible the training of young researchers with the implementation and testing of new tools on active tectonics as well as fault-based seismic hazard analysis.
The workshop in Pisa (IT) “Hands-on fault-based PSHA: data and approaches to build models” is over. For many of us it was the first in-presence meeting after a long period of restrictions due to COVID-19.We hope it could represent the first of many other opportunities, for this enlarged community! We thank all the speakers, participants, INGV and Italian Civil Protection Department for the chance given both of discussing scientific topics and sharing technical issues. The Fault2SHA EXCOM believes it is time to think and organise the 6th Fault2SHA meeting, isn’t it? You will be asked soon to choose about two options that seems to be feasible for next Spring, in 2022. Your vote will drive the choice, then ……..stay tuned!
