Introduction to thematic collection “Historical and geological studies of earthquakes”

Geoscience Letters, Nov 2017

This thematic collection contains eight papers mostly presented at the 2016 AOGS meeting in Beijing. Four papers describe historical earthquake studies in Europe, Japan, and China; one paper uses modern instrumental data to examine the effect of giant earthquakes on the seismicity rate; and three papers describe paleoseismological studies using tsunami deposit in Japan, marine terraces in Philippines, and active faults in Himalayas. Hammerl (Geosci Lett 4:7, 2017) introduced historical seismological studies in Austria, starting from methodology which is state of the art in most European countries, followed by a case study for an earthquake of July 17, 1670 in Tyrol. Albini and Rovida (Geosci Lett 3:30, 2016) examined 114 historical records for the earthquake on April 6, 1667 on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, compiled 37 Macroseismic Data Points, and estimated the epicenter and the size of the earthquake. Matsu’ura (Geosci Lett 4:3, 2017) summarized historical earthquake studies in Japan which resulted in about 8700 Intensity Data Points, assigned epicenters for 214 earthquakes between AD 599 and 1872, and estimated focal depth and magnitudes for 134 events. Wang et al. (Geosci Lett 4:4, 2017) introduced historical seismology in China, where historical earthquake archives include about 15,000 sources, and parametric catalogs include about 1000 historical earthquakes between 2300 BC and AD 1911. Ishibe et al. (Geosci Lett 4:5, 2017) tested the Coulomb stress triggering hypothesis for three giant (M~9) earthquakes that occurred in recent years, and found that at least the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes caused the seismicity rate change. Ishimura (2017) re-estimated the ages of 11 tsunami deposits in the last 4000 years along the Sanriku coast of northern Japan and found that the average recurrence interval of those tsunamis as 350–390 years. Ramos et al. (2017) studied ~ 1000-year-old marine terraces on the west coast of Luzon Island, Philippines, and interpreted that coral boulder on top of the terrace was transported by the tsunami. Arora and Malik (Geosci Lett 4:19, 2017) compiled the paleoseismological data from trenches excavated along the Himalaya arc and argued that grouping of multiple events occurring within several decades would lead to an overestimation of seismic hazard scenario.

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Introduction to thematic collection “Historical and geological studies of earthquakes”

Satake et al. Geosci. Lett. Introduction to thematic collection “Historical and geological studies of earthquakes” Kenji Satake 0 Jian Wang 2 Christa Hammerl 1 Javed N. Malik 3 0 Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo , 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032 , Japan 1 Section Seismology, Division Data , Methods, Modeling, ZAMG Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, Hohe Warte 38, 1190 Vienna , Austria 2 Institute of Geophysics , China Earthquake Administration, No 5. Minzu Daxue Nan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100081 , China 3 Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur , Kanpur 208016 , India This thematic collection contains eight papers mostly presented at the 2016 AOGS meeting in Beijing. Four papers describe historical earthquake studies in Europe, Japan, and China; one paper uses modern instrumental data to examine the effect of giant earthquakes on the seismicity rate; and three papers describe paleoseismological studies using tsunami deposit in Japan, marine terraces in Philippines, and active faults in Himalayas. Hammerl (Geosci Lett 4:7, 2017) introduced historical seismological studies in Austria, starting from methodology which is state of the art in most European countries, followed by a case study for an earthquake of July 17, 1670 in Tyrol. Albini and Rovida (Geosci Lett 3:30, 2016) examined 114 historical records for the earthquake on April 6, 1667 on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, compiled 37 Macroseismic Data Points, and estimated the epicenter and the size of the earthquake. Matsu'ura (Geosci Lett 4:3, 2017) summarized historical earthquake studies in Japan which resulted in about 8700 Intensity Data Points, assigned epicenters for 214 earthquakes between AD 599 and 1872, and estimated focal depth and magnitudes for 134 events. Wang et al. (Geosci Lett 4:4, 2017) introduced historical seismology in China, where historical earthquake archives include about 15,000 sources, and parametric catalogs include about 1000 historical earthquakes between 2300 BC and AD 1911. Ishibe et al. (Geosci Lett 4:5, 2017) tested the Coulomb stress triggering hypothesis for three giant (M~9) earthquakes that occurred in recent years, and found that at least the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes caused the seismicity rate change. Ishimura (2017) re-estimated the ages of 11 tsunami deposits in the last 4000 years along the Sanriku coast of northern Japan and found that the average recurrence interval of those tsunamis as 350-390 years. Ramos et al. (2017) studied ~ 1000-year-old marine terraces on the west coast of Luzon Island, Philippines, and interpreted that coral boulder on top of the terrace was transported by the tsunami. Arora and Malik (Geosci Lett 4:19, 2017) compiled the paleoseismological data from trenches excavated along the Himalaya arc and argued that grouping of multiple events occurring within several decades would lead to an overestimation of seismic hazard scenario. Introduction Large earthquakes cause human and property damages. Earthquake occurrence rate, called seismicity, is high in some countries such as Japan and damaging earthquakes have occurred more frequently than in other countries such as Austria. Typical recurrence interval of large or great earthquakes at particular places is usually long, more than several decades. Modern seismological observations started about a century ago, and the instrumental data are limited only for the last 100 years at maximum. Therefore, use of non-instrumental seismological data such as historical or geological data is essential to study earthquakes in the past, to estimate the recurrence characteristics, and to contribute to the completeness and correctness of the earthquake catalog, which is the basis for seismic hazard analysis. The thematic collections contain eight papers on historical and geological studies of earthquakes. Most of them were presented at the session SE 05 “Paleo- & Historical Earthquake Research and Quantitative Analysis of Seismicity” at the 13th annual meeting of AOGS held in Beijing in August 1–5, 2016. Four papers describe historical earthquake studies based on historical documents, one paper is on instrumental data, and three papers are on paleoseismology using geological methods. In the following, we briefly describe the methodologies and contents of each paper. Historical seismology Historical seismology, unlike conventional seismology based on instrumental data, uses historical documents, preferably contemporary sources, to study earthquakes in the past. Many countries in Europe or Asia have long written history, and historians use such documents to study human history. Such historical documents contain descriptions of past earthquake damages, and they can provide important scientific information on past earthquakes. In order to best utilize such historical materials and examine their reliability, seismologists often need to collaborate wit (...truncated)


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Kenji Satake, Jian Wang, Christa Hammerl, Javed N. Malik. Introduction to thematic collection “Historical and geological studies of earthquakes”, Geoscience Letters, 2017, pp. 26, Volume 4, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s40562-017-0093-4