IASPEI - Picture Gallery

IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy
(S) - IASPEI - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's
Interior
JSS005 Poster presentation 1919
Paleoseismic features as indicators of earthquake hazards in Iran
Mrs. Mahsa Abd Etedal
Institute of Geophysics, Tehran, Iran Institute of Geophysics IASPEI
Giuseppe Delfino
This paper is intended to provide a perspective on the use of paleoseismological studies in the seismic
hazard in Iran. Paleoseismology involves the geologic study of the past behavior of active faults. The
evolution of paleoseismological studies in the past clearly demonstrates that in order to properly
understand the seismic potential of a region, and to assess the associated hazards, it is necessary to
take full advantage from the geological evidence of past earthquakes. The large amount of
paleoseismological data collected in recent years shows that each earthquake source creates a signature
on the geology and the geomorphology of an area that is unequivocally related with the order of
magnitude of its earthquake potential. This signature is defined as the seismic landscape of the area.
The scientific contribution of this approach refer to: confirmation of Holocene fault activity, slip-perevent
and average slip rate of a given fault (or segment), seismic potential of known faults, fault
segmentation, fault interaction as consequence of stress loading by stick-slip on contiguous faults, timespace
distribution of seismic activity along a given tectonic feature, seismotectonic association of
historical earthquakes and landscape evolution on the short term and its implications on the long-term
evolution.
Keywords: paleoseismology, iran, slip