Seismic Hazard Assessment in the European-Mediterranean region
Over the past eight years three main project frameworks have aimed at improving regional seismic hazard assessment in the European-Mediterranean region, by integrating earthquake catalogues, seismic source zoning and hazard assessment.
The Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP), a UN/IDNDR demonstration project, produced the first seismic hazard map for the European-Mediterranean region as part of the Global Seismic Hazard Map (Giardini, 1999), based on the compilation and assemblage of hazard results obtained independently in different test areas and multinational programs (Adria, Ibero-Maghreb, Central-Northern Europe, Fennoscandia, Turkey and Greece, Caucasus, Near East, the Balkans).
The International Geological Correlation Program project n.382 Seismotectonics and seismic hazard assessment of the Mediterranean basin (SESAME) developed in 2000 the first integrated seismic source model and homogeneous hazard mapping for the Mediterranean region.
Finally, the European Seismological Commission (Working Group on Seismic Hazard Assessment) has completed the first unified seismic source model and seismic hazard mapping for Europe and the Mediterranean, presented here. The unified seismogenic source model for the whole region consists of a total of 463 seismic sources (455 shallow and 8 intermediate-depth) and is depicted in the right panel. Each source is characterized by seismicity parameters in terms of earthquake activity rates and maximum magnitude.
The ESC-SESAME model for the European-Mediterranean region allows the generation of hazard maps expressing ground motion in different parameters, for different soil conditions and probability levels through a homogeneous computational procedure. Hazard computation was carried out with SEISRISK III (Bender and Perkins, 1987) and with software developed by R. Musson of the British Geological Survey. This map is computed using the PGA attenuation laws of Ambraseys et al. (1996), Musson (1999), and Papaioannou and Papazachos (2000); areas not covered by the ESC-SESAME seismic source model (Iceland and Russia) are taken from the GSHAP Global Seismic Hazard map.
Acknowledgements
Financial support from the International Lithosphere Project (ILP), the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), UNESCO, the International Association of Seimology and Physics of the Earth Interior, the European Council, NATO (ARW Ct.95-1521), INTAS (Ct.94-1644), the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Italy and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich is acknowledged. Many research agencies supported the participation of their scientists in the different programs. The map was printed with the contribution of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the Swiss Federal Office for Water and Geology, the Swiss Geophysical Commission, the Swiss Pool of Earthquake Insurance, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (AE00-0365), the Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya and UNESCO.
Editorial Board:
M. Erdik (Turkey), M. García-Fernández (Spain), D. Giardini (Switzerland), G. Grünthal (Germany), M.-J. Jiménez (Spain), R. Musson (UK), C. Papaioannou (Greece), A. Shapira (Israel), D. Slejko (Italy).
IGCP-382 SESAME Project Directors: D. Giardini (Switzerland), M. García-Fernández (Spain), K. Makropoulos (Greece), S. Riad (Egypt).
Principal contributors: Y. Alpay-Biro (Turkey), A-Q. Amrat (Jordan), V. Avirax (Israel), S. Balassanian (Armenia), A.A. Barka (Turkey), G. Birgoren (Turkey), C. Bosse (Germany), T. Camelbeeck (Belgium), I. Cecić (Slovenia), M. Chadi (Tunisia), A. Drumya (Moldova), D. El Foul (Algeria), M. El Khoubbi (Syria), A. El Sayed (Egypt), M. Erdik (Turkey), L. Feldman (Israel), M. García-Fernández (Spain), J.-C. Gariel (France), D. Giardini (Switzerland), S. Gregersen (Denmark), G. Grünthal (Germany), P. Gülkan (Turkey), B. Guterch (Poland), P. Halldorsson (Iceland), W. Hays (US), M. Herak (Croatia), A. Hofstetter (Israel), E. Ibrahim (Egypt), M.-J. Jiménez (Spain), P. Labak (Slovakia), J. Lapajne (Slovenia), W. Lenhardt (Austria), C. Lindholm (Norway), K. Makropoulos (Greece), P. Mäntyniemi (Finland), J.-M. Martínez-Solares (Spain), L. Matias (Portugal), D. Mayer-Rosa (Switzerland), L. Mendes-Victor (Portugal), B. Muço (Albania), R. Musson (UK), C. Papaioannou (Greece), G. Papakyriacou (Cyprus), L. Peruzza (Italy), A. Rebez (Italy), B. Reich (Israel), S. Riad (Egypt), P. Scandone (Italy), V. Schenk (Czech Republic), Z. Schenkova (Czech Republic), S. Sellami (Switzerland), K. Sesetyan (Turkey), G. Shamir (Israel), A. Shapira (Israel), D. Slejko (Italy), C. Sousa-Oliveira (Portugal), M. Stucchi (Italy), E. Sulstarova (Albania), B.-A. Tadili (Morocco), P. Teves-Costa (Portugal), V. Ulomov (Russia), T. van Eck (Netherlands), R. Verbeiren (Belgium), R. Wahlström (Sweden), B. Zabukovec (Slovenia), T. Ziros (Hungary), M. Živčić (Slovenia), P. Zupančič (Slovenia).
References
Ambraseys, N.N., Simpson, K.A. and Bommer, J.J. 1996. Prediction of horizontal response spectra in Europe. Earthq. Eng. Struct. Dyn., 25: 371-400.
Bender, B. and Perkins, D.M. 1987. SEISRISK III: A Computer Program for Seismic Hazard Estimation. U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull. 1772, 48 pp.
Giardini, D. (Ed.). 1999. The Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) 1992-1999 - Summary Volume. Annali Geofis., 42(6). http://seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/
Musson, R.M.W. 1999. Probabilistic seismic hazard maps for the North Balkan region. Annali Geofis., 42(6): 1109-1124.
Papaioannou, Ch. and Papazachos, C. 2000, Time-Independent and Time-Dependent Seismic Hazard in Greece based on Seismogenic Sources. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 90(1): 22-33.
For more information, how to obtain the map:
The European-Mediterranean Seismic Hazard Map and all associated documentation including source characterization information will be available via the Internet through:
Swiss Seismological Service: http://seismo.ethz.ch
Inst. of Earth Sciences ‘Jaume Almera’-CSIC http://wija.ija.csic.es
GeoForschungsZentrum: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de