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First Workshop and Meeting of the TREAD project

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.

Aix-en-Provence

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.

First online meeting of the TREAD Project.

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.

TREAD project Network

Instagram: tread_msca

X: @TREAD_horizon

web: https://tread-horizon.eu/

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Surface coseismic reverse faulting is certainly confirmed by new field evidences in North-Eastern Italy!

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

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New Project funded: SHaKER (2022-2026)

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.