1-News

In the framework of the thesis of Julia Molins, we (with U. Barcelona, U. Madrid, IGME) are prospecting along the Palomares fault to document potential signs of recent activity. First observations are encouraging!

The two pictures below exhibit strike-slip faults (with calcite fibers) disrupting fluvial and colluvial deposits (to date of unknown ages but probably Quaternary).

With V. Bichet, A. Quiquerez, R. Grébot and colleagues from Chrono Environnement (Besançon), we opened the cores collected in June 2023 in the lake to look for any traces of ancient earthquakes. The sedimentary record, very well laminated, is a priori favorable to the identification of such phenomena. The 10 meters taken represent roughly the last 10-12 millennia. 

Macroscopic analysis and logs are in progress.

This work completes the archeosismological analysis of the Gallo-Roman site of Villards d'Héria. 

Merci à tous, membres du jury, collègues, Université de Grenoble. Le résumé du mémoire est ici. 

With colleagues from INGV and around Europe, we are building a EU task force to survey coseismic effects for future events. We have had a training session in Turkey, along the huge surface ruptures caused during the February sequence. 

Here is a press release of the survey: https://www.preventionweb.net/news/first-field-exercise-european-earthquake-geology-task-force-euquage-performed-turkiye-surface 

In July, we excavated the area where we suspect the occurrence of roman wall offset by faulting, with the INRAP team.  A few weeks before, we cored in the Holocene deposits of the Antre lake which is bounded by the fault! (with the Besançon university team) 

The database  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01835-z  and the companion paper: trebuchet.public.springernature.app/get_content/138def61-28f5-4fcd-9f78-c872bcae162b

Avec Rémy Grebot et Amélie Quiquerez (Dijon), nous avons visité les ruines (siècles I-III après JC) du site localisé sur la trace de la faille du lac d'Antre, un des segments de la faille du Vuache. Des désordres suggèrent aux archéologues un rôle de la tectonique et/ou de séismes.

Three years after, it is a big pleasure to cross again the ocean and to work in Ecuador... jumping over the pandemic period.

We investigated the epicentral area of the Mw 5.6 Carchi earthquake to uncover the surface rupture. The Sentinel interferogram suggested an EW surface break, however we could not find out any clear discrete surface rupture in the vegetated area.

A scenic view of the Northern Ecuador volcanoes

Happy to unearth the paleo-ruptures on the Petrinja-Pokupsko Fault (efficient Italo-French team !!!)

Voilà, c'est fait !!! Thanks to all the attendees for your participation and enthusiasm. The link to the conference webpage: https://patadays-2022.sciencesconf.org/ 

Next INQUA meeting in Rome, July 2023.

This has been a successful collaboration within a great team, including Oona and myself (IRSN, France), Paolo Boncio and Bruno Pace (U. Chieti-Pescara, Italy), Francesco Visini (INGV, Italy), and of course Fiia Nurminen. 

A FRA-ITA cooperation which will be pursued for sure !!!

Congratulations Dr Nurminen !

First trenches ever dug in Croatia !!! 

This is the continuation of the EU team (Cro/Slo/Fra/ITA) work started in 2021 after the M6.4 Petrinja earthquake

Une belle occasion d'échanger entre tectoniciens et quaternaristes, en particulier pour améliorer notre connaissance des séismes passés en France métropolitaine. Au programme, une session scientifique et un atelier "archéologie/paléosismologie" dédié à ces échanges et comment les améliorer!

In the framework of the PhD thesis of Alessio Testa, I helped the U. Chieti team (among others) to survey the trenches across the Anghiari Fault in the Appennines of Tuscany.

Wow... what a nice trench !!!

For the second year of the pandemic, the Assembly was "virtual", with PICO presentations. I convened two sessions:

- New insights for seismic hazard in regions of slow lithospheric deformation

- Late-Breaking Session: The December 2020 earthquake sequence in Petrinja, Croatia, and its seismotectonic and geodynamic environments

With colleagues of the Geological surveys of Croatia (HGI) and Slovenia (GeoZS), INV and U. Chieti (Italy) and CEREGE (France), we surveyed the environmental effects caused by the shallow M6.4 Petrinja earthquake in Central Croatia (29/12/2020). Despite the COVID pandemic constrains and weather conditions, we recognized a 13 km discontinuous surface rupture and many liquefaction features.

Earthquake environmental effects mapping is a team work !

One of the trace of the right-lateral surface rupture

Marguerite Mathey a brillament soutenu sa thèse de doctorat (Université de Grenoble) que j'ai eu le plaisir et l'honneur de co-encadrer avec Andrea Walpersdorf et Christian Sue. Le titre: Quantification haute résolution du champ de déformation 3D des Alpes occidentales : interprétations tectoniques et apports à l’aléa sismique

Bravo Margot!!!

Le lien vers le manuscrit est ici: LIEN 

With colleagues from Géosciences Montpellier (JF Ritz, M Ferry), Géoazur Nice (C Larroque), IsTERRE Grenoble (L Audin, E Hannouz, C Sue), CEA (L Bollinger, M Riesner) and EDF (K Manchuel, P Arroucau), we (H Jomard and myself) are digging trenches across the La Rouvière fault that caused the M4.9 surface rupturing Le Teil earthquake (11/11/2019; Ardèche).

There is pre-2019 tectonic activity !

Romain is digging across the 2019 scarp (foreground) (Viviers)


In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was conducted online. With others, we convened a session on Stable Continent Regions active tectonics and seismicity.

Here is the link to the session content: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/session/36079

I flew once again to Wellington. Ten intense days with Rob Langridge, Regine Morgenstern and Andy Howell to trench the Papatea and Hope faults. Awesome!

https://sites.google.com/site/baizestephane/news-1/P1010570.jpg

Drone survey of the Hinau trench across the Hope Fault

The 11/11/2019 Mw 4.9 Le Teil earthquake was very shallow and a 4 to 5 km long rupture broke the surface, as evidenced by the SAR interferograms and field observations. At only 15 km SE the Cruas nuclear power plant, this event -the largest in history of the region- will have consequences on further seismic hazard analyses.

For sure this event will cause a significant shift in the way seismic hazard is considered and studied in this part of France.

Several exciting studies will be engaged on the Cévennes Fault System. This is what we started to do with Estelle Hannouz and Christian Sue (in the framework of a RGF thesis), in close collaboration with the CNRS-INSU team (Jeff Ritz, Matthieu Ferry, Laurence Audin, Christophe Larroque).

You can find insights on this earthquake here: Cellule postsismique INSU

Our paper dealing with the surface rupture is available (Nature Commsenv).

https://sites.google.com/site/baizestephane/news-1/rupture.jpg

One of the nicest spot where we could observe the 2019 surface rupture


In the framework of our collaboration with RWTH Aachen (Klaus Reicherter, Jochen Hürtgen), we have excavated 6 trenches in Ettlingen. Among the contributors: K. Reicherter , J. Hürtgen, T. Rockwell, S. Pena-Castellnou, J. van der Wal, W. Abbas, C. Weismüller, H. Sana, F. Cinti, H. Jomard, M. Cushing, G. Seitz, K. Diederichs, A. Eulen, S. Mader and J. R. Ritter

We evidence the recent activity of the fault !!! There could have occurred several paleoearthquakes, with probable activity after deposition of gley loess (possibly 25 kyr old). Confirmation will come after detailed analyses, datings etc...

A drone view of the trenches excavated across the Upper Rhine Graben Eastern Border Fault (Ettlingen, close to Karlsruhe)


The website of the conference


24-28 September 2019: Conference website

20-23 September 2019: With Alexandra Alvarado, Laurence Audin and Hervé Jomard, we organized a fieldtrip on the active faults of Central Ecuador. We travelled from Quito to Riobamba abd Baños: Fieldtrip on Central Ecuador active faults

14-15 September 2019: Field work in northern Ecuador with JL Le Pennec

During the excursion on the Ecuador active faults (Pisayambo)...

Peter Molnar, sitting with Laurence Audin, during the ISAG conference


With C. Grutzner and I. Papanikolaou, we co-covened a session on Paleoseismology and Earthquake geology


With colleagues from INGV (F. Cinti, P.M. De Martini), we excavated two trenches, one across the Norcia fault where tiny ruptures appeared in 2016, one across the synthetic normal fault at Forca di Presta.

A trench across the 2016 M6.5 Norcia earthquake surface rupture


In the framework of the PhD thesis of Octavi Gomez, a series of trenches were dug across the external thrust fault of the Alhama de Murcia fault system that was studued by Marta Ferrater.

With Rob Langridge (GNS), we performed paleoseismological analyses of two trenches across the 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake surface rupture.

Also, we started visiting and mapping the 1855 M8 Wairarapa surface rupture.

What a stunning landscape at this spot, on a secondary strand of the Papatea fault!


Francesca Cinti (INGV) presented the advancement of the SURE project and database.


With RWTH Aachen colleagues (including Jochen Huertgen), we drilled some cores to precisely select a potential site for further trenching, based on the geophysical results of the previous geophysical campaigns (Tunsel and Karlsruhe areas).


A periodic conference that gathers the European scientists interested in historical seismicity and paleoseismology.

I will present recent works in Kazakhstan and Peru. Daniela Pantosti from INGV, our trenches across the 2016 Norcia ruptures; and Klaus Reicherter, the advancement of our common project in the Upper Rhine Graben.


Trenching across the Billecocha fault (Ecuador)... and mapping the 2016 Parina earthquake fault (Peru).

The Billecocha scarp, in Ecuador

The 2016 M6.2 Parina earthquake surface rupture

With RWTH Aachen colleagues and Marc Cushing, we perform geophysical and mapping investigations in two areas (Tunsel and Karlsruhe). The aim is to get more data to decide the trench(es) location(s).



I present the results of a paleoseismological campaign in Kazakhstan (with Klaus Reicherter and others) in the session TS5.1/NH4.8/SM3.02: Paleoseismicity, active faulting, surface deformation, and the implications on seismic hazard assessment (Fault2SHA)


We re-trench close to the backfilled trenches to revise/confirm the stratigraphic correlations, estimate the offsets of channels, and check the age of the last event (Holocene!).

3D trenching with the 3D-trenching-Boss !!! The Holocene channel is circled...


Je présente une contribution intitulée "L'aléa sismique, c'est (aussi) une affaire de Quaternaristes". Mon intention est de retisser des liens avec la communauté des Quaternaristes français.


One year after the multi-segment rupture that accompanied the M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, the yearly INQUA PATA Days will be held in New Zealand, organized by our colleagues from GNS Science.

The meeting will start with one-day field trip in the northernmost section of the surface rupture. Then we will have 3 days of meeting in Ward and Blenheim. Finally, we all shall move from Blenheim to Christchurch across the famous Marlborough and Canterbury faults, including some of those that ruptured last year.

The program is here available on the GNS Science: https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/News-and-Events/Events/PATA/Welcome.


University of Camerino and other colleagues from Italy, UK and France organize an international field trip in Central Italy. The objective is to visit the three recent Central Italy earthquakes' surface ruptures.

Find the Program, Fees, etc here: http://convegni.unicam.it/tdeq_centralitaly We take advantage of this conference to dig and present trenches across sections of the 2016 Norcia earthquake ruptures (project with INGV).


With Koji Okumura (U. Hiroshima), Nobuhisa Matsuta (U. Okayama), Takashi Azuma (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), we organize a Session "Surface Ruptures During Earthquakes: Mapping, Analyses, and Hazard Assessment"


The 3rd workshop of the newly-accepted ESC group "Fault2SHA" is approaching. The Program, deadlines, fees, etc are available here: https://fault2shablog.wordpress.com/blog/

Three sessions are planned, with key lectures, flash talks and posters:

- Scaling relationships with Pilar Villamor (GNS, New Zealand) and Chris DuRoss (USGS)

- Fault interaction with Yann Klinger (IPGP) and Bruce Shaw (Columbia University)

- Fault2SHA with Graeme Weatherill (GEM) and Ned Field (USGS)


With the Barcelona team (E. Masana, M. Ortuño, R. Lopez), we will spend 10 days to dig trench(es) across the Carboneras Fault, SE Spain, a major tectonic feature of SE Spain that accommodates part (1.5 mm/a) of relative motion between Africa and Iberia.


With Tim Dawson (CGS), Dave Schwartz (USGS), Francesca Cinti (INGV), we are organizing a meeting on the topic of Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis (FDHA). The Workshop will be held December 8-9th at the U.S. Geological Survey Campus in Menlo Park, CA, and is timed to be before the 2016 AGU Fall meeting.

Workshop themes include:

· Progress towards a worldwide database of surface rupturing earthquakes for use in Fault Rupture Displacement Analysis.

· Lessons learned from recent surface rupturing earthquakes.

· Case studies and advances in approaches for fault displacement hazard analysis.

· Future directions: Advancing fault rupture and displacement hazard analysis from research topics to the state-of-practice

http://www.earthquakegeology.com/index.php?page=meetings&s=5.


With Japanese (Makoto Takao, TEPCO; Sugaya, NRA) and US (Tim Dawson) colleagues, we propose a session dedicated to Surface Earthquake Ruptures: NH52B and NH53C: Toward a Unified and Worldwide Database of Earthquake Surface Ruptures.

The link to the Session proposal: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm16


Due to this event, the INQUA PATA Days planned in Southern Island of New Zealand have been post-poned from April to November 2017.

To study this event, we set up a collaboration between IRSN and IPGP (Yann Klinger) to quantifiy the coseismic deformation (on- and off-fault) with Optical Correlation (Johann Champenois, Amaury Vallage).


This meeting is held in Quito, at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional. With my colleagues of the Seismotectonic Group of this LMI, we will present our recent advances in mapping the actives faults and quantifying their slip rates. The program of the meeting is available at http://lmi.igepn.edu.ec/quienes-somos/noticias/item/18-encuentro-del-lmi-svan-2016.

We take advantage of this conference to pursue our field mapping of the Pallatanga active fault in Central Ecuador.


As geologists at the “Institut de Radioprotection et Sûreté Nucléaire” (IRSN), Oona Scotti, Hervé Jomard and myself surveyed the surface ruptures associated with the M6 Amatrice and M6.5 Norcia earthquakes in Central Italy. We joined a French team that was sponsored by CNRS/INSU. The INSU French Team included geologists from IPG Paris (Nathalie Feuillet, Eric Jacques), IPG Strasbourg (Jérôme Van der Woerd, Pierrick Bornemann), CEREGE Aix-en-Provence (Magali Rizza; Jules Fleury; Jim Tesson; Lucilla Benedetti). This enlarged French team was accompanied by geologists from the Chieti University (Bruno Pace, Alessandro Valentini) and scientists from INGV (Stefano Pucci; Fabio Villani).

We are especially interested in the relationship between the surface deformation and earthquake parameters such as focal depth and magnitude, but also with local geological and morphological conditions.

I published on my blog preliminary comments on the observations after the first shock (M6 in august): http://stephaneonblogger.blogspot.fr/2016/11/the-norcia-earthquake-sequence-insights.html

Also, find some pictures relating our observations of part of the ruptures that occurred after the M6.5 shock on 30th october here: http://stephaneonblogger.blogspot.fr/2016/12/the-m65-norcia-earthquake-surface.html

Surface rupture is a priority scientific issue in the IRSN research activities, because this phenomenon is a threat to facilities in case of strong events. The earthquake of Amatrice, with a magnitude similar to that can be expected in France, has shown that significant (up to 30 cm) surface faulting can occur during moderate magnitude events.


The conference was held in this amazing San Luis Valley, Colorado, at the toe of the Sangre de Cristo fault. For Marc Cushing, my IRSN colleague, and myself, it has been a nice revival of the 2012 training session we had with Jim McCalpin. Before the Conference, I was with other 21 lucky guys driving in the Wild West roads to visit some outstanding geological landmarks of the eastern Basin and Range Province. The road trip led us to the Wasatch Range fault zone, the 1983 Borah Peak quake surface rupture, the 1959 Hebgen Lake quake surface rupture and associated landslide, the Yosemite Park and volcanic events, the Grand Teton range and its active faults.

More details on this road trip on my Blog. 

The Conference lasted 5 days, with a bunch of presentations which can be downloaded on the Paleoseismicity.org website (Abstracts of the 7th PATA Days).

I presented some preliminary results and thoughts about our last field surveys in central Ecuador. And appeared as co-author in three other papers/talks (Audin et al., Ecuador-Peru; Vargas et al., Chile; Thomas et al., Germany).