The title of this special issue, “Linking faults to seismic hazard
assessment in Europe”, is the result of a challenging experiment that we
have been carrying out for a few years: creating a working group of field
geologists, fault modellers, data modellers, and seismic hazard
practitioners to discuss and share ideas, promote initiatives to strengthen
collaborations, and improve knowledge and practice of fault-based seismic
hazard assessment. This special issue was designed in the framework
of activity of the Fault2SHA Working Group (formally approved by the European Seismological
Commission – ESC – at the 35th General Assembly, held in Trieste (Italy), in
September 2016, http://www.fault2sha.net, last access: 9 May 2018).
The key questions the Fault2SHA Working Group asked the research community with this special
issue were as follows. What is the best strategy to fill in the gap in knowledge and
expertise in Europe when considering faults in seismic hazard assessments?
Are field geologists providing the relevant information for seismic hazard
assessment? Are seismic hazard analysts interpreting field data
appropriately? Is the full range of uncertainties associated with the
characterization of faults correctly understood and propagated in
computations? How can fault modellers contribute to a better representation
of the long-term behaviour of fault networks in seismic hazard studies?
Providing answers to these questions is fundamental in order to reduce the
consequences of future earthquakes and improve the reliability of seismic
hazard assessments.
This special issue includes 11 papers focused on data gathering
(García-Mayordomo et al., 2017; Hintersberger et al., 2018; Jomard et
al., 2017) as well as seismic and surface rupture hazard modelling (Avital et al.,
2018; Valentini et al., 2017; Chartier et al., 2017a, b;
Gülerce et al., 2017; Azzaro et al., 2017; Peruzza et al., 2017;
Boncio et al., 2018).
Key points of the papers are as follows:
García-Mayordomo et al. (2017) discuss the process of updating and reviewing the Quaternary Active Fault
Database of Iberia (QAFI); the authors devoted particular attention to
describing the scheme devised for classifying the quality and
representativeness of the geological evidence of Quaternary activity and the
accuracy of slip rate estimation.
Hintersberger et al. (2018) show palaeoseismological investigations at an active fault of the Vienna
Basin (Austria); this case study provided a good example of the necessity of
combining more than one field observation and estimating the related
uncertainties.
Jomard et al. (2017) and Chartier et al. (2017a)
are two companion papers devoted to the development of an active fault
database for metropolitan France (Part 1) and its transposition into a fault
model for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis in the Upper Rhine Graben (Part 2).
Avital et al. (2018) discuss the effect of alternative seismotectonic models on seismic hazard
analysis for two sites in Israel, one in the near-fields of a major fault
system and one farther away.
Valentini et al. (2017) propose a new probabilistic seismic hazard model for Italy that integrates
active faults and seismological data in seismic hazard estimations.
Gülerce et al. (2017) provide a seismic source characterization model used in the probabilistic
seismic hazard assessment for Istanbul (Turkey).
Azzaro et al. (2017) and Peruzza et al. (2017) are two companion papers concerning the seismic hazard assessment of
Mt Etna (Italy); the first paper tackles the problem of characterizing
low-magnitude and shallow seismic sources in a volcanic area, while the second one
presents specific implementations and first seismic hazard results obtained
for Mt Etna.
Chartier et al. (2017b) present a novel methodology that uses a system-level approach rather than
an individual-fault-level approach to estimate the rate of earthquakes on
faults; the methodology was tested on the western Corinth Rift (Greece).
Boncio et al. (2018) discuss surface rupture hazard issues related to the collection of data
from well-studied surface faulting thrust/reverse earthquakes around the
world, the statistical analysis of the distribution of surface ruptures, and
the implications for earthquake fault rupture zoning.
The aim of this special issue, in the framework of the Fault2SHA activities, was to
motivate scientific exchanges among contributors from different disciplines,
promoting growth of the community with a common language aimed to understand how
faults can best be incorporated in seismic hazard studies; we believe that
the papers in this volume pose a first step towards achieving this goal.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the chief editor, Stefano Tinti, the editorial
staff and the authors for giving us the opportunity to publish this special
issue. Finally, we, as guest editors, would like to express our gratitude to
Stéphane Baize, Celine Beauval, Dan Clark, Edward Marc Cushing,
Laurentiu Danciu, Julian Garcia-Mayordomo, Ryan Gold, Nicola Litchfield,
Franz Livio, Kuo-Fong Ma, Maria Ortuno, Kris Vanneste, Graeme Weatherill and
the anonymous referees for their constructive reviews.
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