A world of earthquakes

Keywords:
Prerequisites: Notions of seismology. Notions of geology. Notions of geodesy. It is expected, but
not mandatory, to have attended the Seismo-Tectonics class (M1 Geosciences).

Objectives: The objective of this class is to get a general knowledge of the seismic behavior in
verious regions of the world. We will not spend much time on the physics of earthquakes but rather
describe what we know of past earthquakes, potential for future earthquakes and the relationship
with the geological history, the topography and sometimes the human societies impacted. The
professors involved are all world-leading experts of the seismo-tectonics of these regions and classes
will be partly based on their own work, partly based on a review of the literature.

Class summary: After a general introduction about earthquakes and fault dynamics in general, we
will talk, in 2022-2023, about California, Turkey, Tibet, the Himalayas, Bolivia, Chile, the Pacific
Northwest, New Zealand, Sumatra and Alaska. We will discuss large earthquakes, actives faults,
field observations and models.

Organisation: The class will be based on 2-to-4 hour-long seminars from 11 am to 1 pm on Fridays.
There will be no practicals.

Class requirements: To pass this class, you will have to build your own literature review on
one of the many regions that we will not cover during the class. For instance, Japan, Italy, Greece,
the Solomon Islands, Pakistan, Iran, the Levant fault system, etc, can be considered. You will
have to choose between writing a 2 page-long essay or a 15 minutes presentation.

Class outline:
• Introduction by R. Jolivet (2h)
• the Himalayas by L. Bollinger (2h)
• Bolivia by L. Bollinger (2h)
• Chile by C. Vigny (4h)
• Alaska by M. Delescluse (2h)
• Sumatra by M. Delescluse (2h)
• the Pacific Northwest by S. Michel (2h)
• New Zealand by S. Michel (2h)
• California by R. Jolivet (2h)
• North Anatolia by R. Jolivet (2h)
• Tibet by R. Jolivet (2h)
• Preparation and presentations (4h)