Friday 17 July 2009

DRT 2009 conference in Liverpool

0 comments
As it has been communicated in the Geo-Tectonics mailing list, the “Deformation, rheology and tectonics” conference in Liverpool will take place this September, between the 7th and the 9th.

In their own words, “In 2009, DRT is a joint venture between the universities of Liverpool and Manchester, and is to be held in the contemporary cityscape of the rejuvenated Liverpool Docklands.

As many of you are aware, 2008 was shrouded by the untimely loss of Dr. Martin Casey.  This meeting is dedicated to Martin, and events and sessions will be organised in his memory.

The conference includes two fieldtrips: A pre-conference trip to the Mam Tor Landslide (Derbysire, England) on the 6th of September 2009 and a post-conference trip to the Isle of Anglesey (north Wales) from the 9th to the 11th of September of 2009.  (http://www.liverpool.ac.uk/PDMearth_sciences/dept/drt2009/fieldtrips.html)


The site is www.liverpool.ac.uk/earth/drt2009, and you can see the programme in here: www.liverpool.ac.uk/earth/drt2009/programme.


Monday 13 July 2009

M6.3 earthquake in Taiwan

0 comments
If you have been listening to the news in the last hours, you probably know already that a M6.3 earthquake has struck offshore Taiwan. As usual, the best information comes from the USGS.

The event happend at 18.05 UTC, and we don't yet have a focal mechanism solution for it. Anyway, in the attached figure you can have an idea of what is going on in there.

Taiwan is located in the boundary between the Phillipine Sea and the Eurasian plates. There is an approximated convergence rate of 80 mm/yr to the SE. What is really especial about this island is the presence of two subduction zones: One, where the South China Sea subducts beneath Eurasia, and another one, where Eurasia subducts beneath the South China Sea, forming both zones approximately a right angle.

You can see a great introduction (including the previous explanation) to the geology of Taiwan in the dedicated website of the
California Institute of Technology:

http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/taiwan/regional.htm



Sources:

- http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009jabu.php
- http://www.tectonics.caltech.edu/taiwan/regional.htm

Sunday 12 July 2009

Comments available again!

1 comments
In the last days I have been trying to fix the problem we had with the comments, which now they work again!

The problem was fairly simple: although we have our own domain, the blog is enginereed by www.blogger.com, and it seems they don't fit as nicely as we expected.

Probably, if you have been visiting this website in the few days, you have been we have been trying some fancy designs... I promise the final one will have a geological look, just give me a couple of days!!

So... post your comments, they are more than welcome!

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Download ASTER GDEM

0 comments
On Monday 29th of June of 2009, NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, released the Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) created from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data. That has involved the processing of more than a million ASTER scenes, in order to cover Earth’s land surface between 83 degrees North and 83 degrees South.

The result is a 30-m resolution digital elevation model available from the following URL: ASTER GDEM . In this website the GDEM can be downloaded selecting by tiles, by polygon, by shapefile and of course, by coordinates.

So far the standard DEM was the SRTM data, obtained during a flight of the Space Shuttle in 2000. Its resolution is approximately 90 m (30 for USA), and has proven to be a very valuable resource in structural geology, hydrocarbon exploration, geohazard analyses, etc. GDEM will predictably become a new standard, with a commercial resolution and global availability.


363788main_pia12090-516.jpg


Important links: