Natural Hazards and Geological Risks in Subduction Zones

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Hazards".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 4290

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering and Geology (InGeo), Università degli Studi G. d'Annunzio Chieti e Pescara, Pescara, Italy
Interests: seismic microzonation; empirical rainfall threshold applied to shallow landslides; geostatistical methods applied to hazard mapping and geotechnical subsoil characterization; stability numerical analyses of rock cavities
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Guest Editor
Department of Engineering and Geology (InGeo), Università degli Studi G. d'Annunzio Chieti- Pescara, Pescara, Italy
Interests: egineering geology; seismic microzonation and seismic local response; landslides hazard and risk; applied geophysical techniques for subsoil model reconstruction and dynamic characterization of soils

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Guest Editor
Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi 22, 90123 Palermo, Italy
Interests: gully erosion; stochastic approach to landslide susceptibility modelling; GIS; machine learning to model soil erosion
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are proposing a Special Issue, entitled “Natural Hazards and Geological Risks in Subduction Zones”, in Geosciences (Editors: G. Vessia, A. De Santis, M.L. Rainone, and C. Conoscenti)

It is well known that subduction zones throughout the planet are remarkably seismically active areas affected by high geological hazards due to their geological, seismo-tectonic, volcanic, geomorphological, and hydrogeological characteristics. In these zones, large-magnitude earthquakes take place both in depth along the subduction planes and as intraplate seismicity at shallower depths, causing a lot of casualties and damages. Volcanic activities that are related to these subduction zones periodically deposit fine and granular coverings (within a radius of thousands of meters) with peculiar hydraulic and slope stability features, which threaten several human settlements worldwide. These tectonic zones are typical of the Central America Trench, along the coast of Chile and the Andes, and in in-pit arch systems, such as Japan and the Mariana Trench, but they are also present in Europe, such as the Calabrian and the Hellenic subduction zones. In almost all cases, the aforementioned hazardous conditions cause a high level of risk if they occur in highly urbanized contexts. In recent years, some projects have started working on these topics. For instance, the CASTES project, an international cooperation project supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), has been financing and fostering international research on geological hazards and risks in El Salvador and in the Central American region where subduction zones are located. Another example is the ERC (European Research Council) Project, MILESTONE, which investigates microseismicity to illuminate subduction zone processes.

This Special Issue aims to showcase site investigations and numerical simulations carried out in subduction zones, which have focused on the following topics:

  1. Seismic microzoning studies in urbanized areas;
  2. Applications of geophysical and geotechnical techniques for the reconstruction of a subsoil geological model for microzoning activities;
  3. Local seismic response assessment (site amplification);
  4. Statistical seismology, which applies, but is not limited to, swarms and seismic sequences;
  5. Earthquake forecasting;
  6. Seismically induced landslides;
  7. Volcanic hazard and related risk;
  8. Hydraulic and hydrogeological risk;
  9. Numerical modeling of earthquake-related natural hazards;
  10. Multi-hazard assessment in urbanized areas.

We invite you to submit contributions on the above topics. Abstracts (max 350 words) must be sent to the journal by 30 January 2023. The submission of full-length papers or review papers must be completed by 30 October 2023.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Giovanna Vessia
Prof. Dr. Angelo De Santis
Prof. Dr. Mario Luigi Rainone
Prof. Dr. Christian Conoscenti
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  •  subduction zones
  •  geological risks
  •  seismic microzonation in urbanized areas
  •  earthquake forecasting
  •  volcanic risk
  •  hydraulic and hydrogeological risk
  •  landslides
  •  multi-hazard in urbanized areas

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2864 KiB  
Article
Analytical Relation between b-Value and Electromagnetic Signals in Pre-Macroscopic Failure of Rocks: Insights into the Microdynamics’ Physics Prior to Earthquakes
by Patricio Venegas-Aravena and Enrique G. Cordaro
Geosciences 2023, 13(6), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13060169 - 7 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1306
Abstract
Field measurements in subduction regions have revealed the presence of non-seismic pre-earthquake signals such as electromagnetic or acoustic emission, gas liberation, changes in Earth’s surface temperature, changes at the ionospheric level, or fluid migration. These signals are commonly associated with impending earthquakes, even [...] Read more.
Field measurements in subduction regions have revealed the presence of non-seismic pre-earthquake signals such as electromagnetic or acoustic emission, gas liberation, changes in Earth’s surface temperature, changes at the ionospheric level, or fluid migration. These signals are commonly associated with impending earthquakes, even though they often rely solely on temporal and spatial correlations in impending earthquake zones without a comprehensive understanding of the underlying lithospheric processes. For example, one criticism is the measurement of increasing electromagnetic signals even in the absence of observable macroscopic stress changes, which challenges the conventional understanding that macroscopic stress changes are the primary energy source for non-seismic pre-earthquake signals. To address this gap, rock experiments provide valuable insights. Recent experiments have shown that rocks can become electrified under constant macroscopic stress changes, accompanied by a decrease in the b-value, indicating multiscale cracking. This suggests the existence of small-scale dynamics that generate electromagnetic signals independently of large-scale stress variations. In that sense, multiscale thermodynamics offers a valuable perspective in describing this multiscale phenomenon. That is why the main goal of this work is to demonstrate that the electromagnetic signals before macroscopic failures are not independent of the cracking generation because the origin of both phenomena is the same. In particular, we present analytical equations that explain the physical connection between multiscale cracking, the generation of electromagnetic signals, and its negative correlation with acoustic emission before the macroscopic failure of rocks even when the macroscopic load is constant. In addition, we also show that the thermodynamic fractal dimension, which corresponds to the global parameter that controls the cracking process, is proportional to the b-value when the large-scale crack generation is considerably larger than the small-scale cracks. Thus, the decreases in the b-value and the increases in the electromagnetic signals indicate that rocks irreversibly prepare to release energy macroscopically. These findings could be related to the dynamics at lithospheric scales before earthquakes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazards and Geological Risks in Subduction Zones)
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30 pages, 13100 KiB  
Article
2D FEM Numerical Prediction of Local Seismic Effects at San Salvador Municipality (El Salvador) Induced by 2001 Earthquakes
by Chiara Faraone, Serena Caravaggio, José Alexander Chávez, Luis Alfonso Castillo Ramos, Mario Luigi Rainone and Giovanna Vessia
Geosciences 2023, 13(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13040116 - 13 Apr 2023
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Abstract
San Salvador Metropolitan Area (MASS) is an urbanized territory in the country of El Salvador, located between the San Salvador volcano and the Ilopango caldera, in a sub-flat area called “Valle de las Hamacas” (Valley of the Hammocks). The high seismicity [...] Read more.
San Salvador Metropolitan Area (MASS) is an urbanized territory in the country of El Salvador, located between the San Salvador volcano and the Ilopango caldera, in a sub-flat area called “Valle de las Hamacas” (Valley of the Hammocks). The high seismicity of this area is due to the subduction zone of the Cocos plate that causes strong seismic events such as the earthquakes that occurred on 13 January (7.6 Mw) and 13 February 2001 (6.6 Mw). As part of the international cooperation project between Italy (AICS) and El Salvador University, the CASTES project focussed on natural hazards in the territory of El Salvador was launched. Therefore, 2D simulations are carried out along two sections to evaluate the Local Seismic Response (LSR) in the Southeast part of MASS territory. Results show spatially variable amplifications (from 3 to 6.5) in the period ranging 0.1–0.7 s and evidence of lateral FA variations that can be calculated only through 2D numerical analyses. Two amplified periods are recognised, 0.1–0.5 s and 0.4–0.8 s, due to the presence of two types of subsoil volcanic deposits: the shallow and soft Tierra Blanca deposits and the deeper and stiffer Volcanic ash and Tuff. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural Hazards and Geological Risks in Subduction Zones)
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