Project description
Understanding earthquakes occurring in stable continental regions
Earthquakes typically occur at plate boundaries where tectonic plates move along faults. However, rare yet highly destructive earthquakes can also occur in stable continental regions (SCRs). The source of the elastic stress responsible for these earthquakes remains unknown. The ERC-funded Quake project will study these infrequent yet potentially catastrophic earthquakes in SCRs.The team will use advanced AI techniques to create a comprehensive global catalogue of earthquakes in seismically critical regions and develop a tool for predicting surface loads affecting the Earth’s crust. A numerical model will be used to ascertain whether continents are currently experiencing failure due to the stress remnants from ancient plate boundaries, thus enabling more precise assessments of seismogenic potential and hazards.
Objective
While most earthquakes occur near plate boundaries, where the relative motion of tectonic plates is accommodated by slip on active faults, rare and unexpected but destructive earthquakes also occur in Stable Continental Regions. In SCRs, although we do not know why, earthquakes occur everywhere, they cluster, are of all magnitudes and are modulated by surface loads. However, no tectonic, secular strain can be detected and we do not know the origin of the elastic stress fueling these seismic events. Current hypothesis suggests that SCRs are stable reservoirs of elastic stress in which earthquakes can tap to break the crust. However, although tremendous work has been conducted to seismically characterize these regions, existing catalogs are not dense enough to explore potential physical mechanisms.
I propose to test the following hypothesis: these rare albeit potentially destructive earthquakes are the result of the static fatigue of continents under stress left by previous phases of deformation in the geological history of a region. I will leverage the latest developments in artificial intelligence to grow the densest and largest global catalog of earthquakes in SCRs from seismological and InSAR data (WP1). I will develop a tool to predict realistic time series of surface loads affecting the crust (WP2). I will implement static fatigue in the form of brittle creep in a numerical model (WP3) to test whether continents are effectively failing today under paleo-stress left by fossil plate boundaries perturbed by todays' modulations of crustal stress, comparing model outcomes with data collected in WP1.
This interdisciplinary project combining seismology, geodesy, machine learning and numerical modeling will allow to (1) grow a physical understanding of the seismogenic behavior of SCRs, (2) tune estimates of seismogenic potential (and eventually hazard) for any given SCR (3) test whether a changing climate will affect the seismogenic potential of SCRs in the future.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology seismology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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75230 Paris
France
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