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Inverting Megathrust Paleoseismic Records to Improve our kNowledge of Temporal and Spatial rupture variability

Project description

Revealing earthquake variability using sediment records

Understanding how and where massive earthquakes occur is crucial for protecting communities from future disasters. Important areas for these powerful events are subduction zones where tectonic plates collide. To determine the hazard, scientists study past earthquakes by analysing sediment layers in lakes, fjords and oceans, which hold clues about ancient seismic activity. However, linking these sediment records to earthquake magnitude and location has been challenging. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the IMPRINTS project will combine sediment analysis with advanced physics-based ground motion modelling to reveal more about earthquake behaviour. The proposed approach will boost understanding of earthquake patterns and improve hazard maps, helping to better prepare for earthquakes and tsunamis.

Objective

Constraining the spatiotemporal variability of megathrust earthquakes is one of the key challenges in subduction zone research around the world. Such understanding is critical for reliable seismic hazard assessments, requiring knowledge of size, location and timing of past earthquakes to estimate future risks. A key discipline providing the necessary continuity and sensitivity to accurately record past earthquakes is subaquatic paleoseismology, relying on the identification of shaking imprints in lakes, fjords and oceans. Unfortunately, a quantitative link between an earthquake’s sedimentary imprint and its source parameters (e.g. magnitude, location) is missing, meaning that the full potential of the methodology is still not achieved and critical information on megathrust earthquake dynamics remains obscured. The IMPRINTS project provides innovative advances to the state-of-the-art of subaquatic paleoseismology by combining it with physics-based ground motion modelling. This will be achieved by using sedimentological methods to reveal individual paleo-earthquakes, and propagating dislocation models for each of these events into ground motion models after validating them against coastal records of earthquake deformation. In this way, it combines the disciplines of sedimentology and seismology and enriches them with computational approaches, allowing for the first quantitative evaluations of the spatial and temporal variability of megathrust ruptures. These unprecedented insights into subduction zone earthquake dynamics will subsequently be used to test and validate national seismic hazard models, which will ultimately benefit society through improved seismic and tsunami hazard maps. IMPRINTS thus creates a significant impact that reaches beyond academia and contributes to the overall aim of earthquake risk mitigation.

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK
Net EU contribution

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€ 308 291,16
Address
INNRAIN 52
6020 Innsbruck
Austria

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Region
Westösterreich Tirol Innsbruck
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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