TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

Earthquakes

Where earthquake faults reach the ground surface: insight from 2016 Kumamoto event

Where earthquake faults reach the ground surface: insight from 2016 Kumamoto event

What does a seismogenic fault look like? We can sometimes observe surface earthquake faults, which propagate ruptures from the hypocenter to the ground surface. In 2016, intense seismicity was observed during the Kumamoto earthquake sequence in Japan. This sequence consisted of many shallow earthquakes, including a strong foreshock and the subsequent mainshock with numerous aftershocks. The earthq ...[Read More]

Geomythology. True Science and/or Strong Communication Medium ?!

Geomythology. True Science and/or Strong Communication Medium ?!

Geomythology is a relatively recent term, coined by Dorothy B. Vitaliano in 1966. It represented the birth of what will become a new multidisciplinary approach, aimed not only at explaining the geological meaning of natural phenomenon behind long-told folklore (myths and legends), but also at bridging the communication gap between scientists and non-scientists (Vitaliano, 1973). Geomythology estab ...[Read More]

Geomythology. Japan’s Earthquakes – The work of Namazu?

Geomythology. Japan’s Earthquakes – The work of Namazu?

Welcome to this first post on the EGU TS blog’s newest series on Geomythology. Plate tectonic theory has existed for just over half a century but the Earth beneath us has always been active. In this series we explore historical and mythological explanations to tectonic phenomena we now understand, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, and others.   Japanese Earthquakes Japan is one of th ...[Read More]

Features from the Field: Shear Zones and Mylonites

Features from the Field: Shear Zones and Mylonites

The San Andreas Fault in California, the Alpine Fault in New Zealand, or the Main Frontal Thrust in the Himalayas are some of the most famous and largest fault zones that accommodate the relative displacement between two adjacent crustal blocks. Such faults, however, represent only the shallower expression of something much bigger: a crustal shear zone. In the first 10 kilometers or so of the crus ...[Read More]

TS Must-Read – Mckenzie and Parker (1967) The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere

TS Must-Read  – Mckenzie and Parker (1967) The North Pacific: an example of tectonics on a sphere

The paper describes how large, rigid, aseismic regions can be defined with Euler’s theorem, which describes the geometry of motion on a sphere, i.e. the Earth’s surface. Points on these large and rigid blocks move in relation to other blocks describing small circles set by their rotation pole. The paper describes this as “paving stone theory”, where tectonic plates are “paving stones”, and success ...[Read More]

Beyond Tectonics: How the tectonic events of 1783 were perceived by the population of Europe

Beyond Tectonics: How the tectonic events of 1783 were perceived by the population of Europe

This edition of “Beyond Tectonics” is brought to you by Katrin Kleemann. Katrin is a doctoral candidate at the Rachel Carson Center/LMU Munich in Germany, she studies environmental history and geology. Her doctoral project investigates the Icelandic Laki fissure eruption of 1783 and its impacts on the northern hemisphere. “A Violent Revolution of Planet Earth” – The C ...[Read More]

Minds over Methods: The faults of a rift

Minds over Methods: The faults of a rift

Do ancient structures control present earthquakes in the East African Rift?  Åke Fagereng, Reader in Structural Geology, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University For this edition of Minds over Methods, we have invited Åke Fagereng, reader in Structural Geology at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University. Åke writes about faults in the Malawi rift, and the seismic ha ...[Read More]

Minds over Methods: Mineral reactions in the lab

Minds over Methods: Mineral reactions in the lab

  Mineral reactions in the lab André Niemeijer, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences at Utrecht University, the Netherlands In this blogpost we will go on a tour of the High Pressure and Temperature (HPT) Laboratory at Utrecht University and learn about some of the interesting science done there. André’s main interest is fault friction and all the various processes that are invol ...[Read More]

Lisbon at the dawn of modern geosciences

Lisbon at the dawn of modern geosciences

Here, where the land ends and the sea begins... Luís de Camões (Portuguese poet) Lisbon. Spilled over the silver Tagus River, it is known by its beautiful low light, incredible food and friendly people. Here, cultures met, and poets dreamed, as navigators gathered to plan their journeys to old and new worlds. Fustigated by one of the greatest disasters the world has ever witnessed, Lisbon is inter ...[Read More]

Minds over Methods: Linking microfossils to tectonics

Minds over Methods: Linking microfossils to tectonics

This edition of Minds over Methods article is written by Sarah Kachovich and discusses how tiny fossils can be used to address large scale tectonic questions. During her PhD at the University of Brisbane, Australia, she used radiolarian biostratigraphy to provide temporal constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Himalayan region – onshore and offshore on board IODP Expedition 362. Sarah  ...[Read More]