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The eastern Corinth Gulf is constantly uplifted at least since Middle Pleistocene. This uplift is the combined result of the regional uplift and the activity of major active faults which influence the area. These tectonic movements which control the sedimentation processes of the study area resulted in a complex stratigraphy, paleogeography and paleoenvironment of the Corinth Isthmus. Stratigraphy supported with nannofossil biozonation data, demonstrates that marine sedimentation processes occurred during MIS 7 and MIS 5, providing some important constraints regarding the uplift rate of the area. An 0.22 ± 0.12 mm/yr uplift rate is extracted through nannofossils biozonation which is in agreement with published data from U/Th coral dating in a neighboring setting, adding confidence to the measured uplift rates. In order to constrain the regional uplift of the area, the influence of the surrounding active faults has been extracted. The latter has been implemented by extracting the influence of each individual active fault to the study site (using the fault geometry, fault slip-rates, the fault dip and the fault footwall uplift/ hangingwall subsidence ratio), in order to calculate the regional uplift rate. By considering the stratigraphy and the biostratigraphy of the eastern part of the Corinth Isthmus and by extracting the influence of the active faults, a~0.34 ± 0.04 mm/yr regional uplift is calculated. © 2019 Gebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany.

Borehole Bh-3, located at the eastern part of the Corinth Isthmus (Greece) in a highly active extensional tectonic environment, is studied in detail. The lithology of the 70-m-long borehole is described, and 55 samples extracted from the core are analyzed for their micropaleontological content. Quantitative analysis of foraminiferal fauna assemblages, along with magnetic susceptibility measurements, indicates alternations between different paleoenvironments ranging from upper shoreface and fluvial-terrestrial to lagoon and shallow marine. The borehole site regional paleodepth was estimated, ranging from a few meters to ∼40 m on the basis of foraminiferal assemblages within the borehole, and the vertical stacking of the facies was interpreted as transgressive and regressive system tracts. Calcareous nannofossils found within the core, based on the presence of Emiliania huxleyi specimens, correlated with the glacioeustatic sea-level changes, and the uplift rate of the area indicated a post-240-ka age, corresponding to sea-level highstand marine isotope stages 7 to 5. © 2018 Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc.

This work illustrates the state of the art on archaeoseismology of the ancient Roman city of Baelo Claudia (Tarifa, Cádiz) after nearly fifteen years of research. This ancient Roman site was affected by two earthquakes in the years AD 40–60 and AD 260–290 which promoted important urban and architectural changes and eventually the destruction and further abandonment of the city in AD 365–390. Earthquake Archaeoseismological Effects (EAEs) are catalogued, described and mapped in the entire monumental sector of the city mainly witnessing the last earthquake which occurred in AD 260–290. Mapping of oriented EAEs illustrate damage distribution all over the lower sector of the city, as well as the occurrence of suspect coseismic landslide and tsunami events. The structural analysis of oriented EAEs throughout the entire mapped sector suggests that the intervening ground motion was preferentially oriented in a SW to NE direction. The geoarchaeological analysis and some relevant archaeological anomalies, strongly suggest the occurrence of coeval tsunami events during both ancient earthquakes, pointing to the occurrence of an offshore seismic source SSW of the city. Several N-S normal faults have been identified around the Bolonia Bay area and some of them continue offshore SSW of Baelo Claudia. These faults with clear Quaternary activity can be considered as the more probable seismic sources for the events affecting the ancient Roman site and they are consistent with the mapped damage orientation displayed by the structural analysis of EAEs within the old Roman city. El presente trabajo ilustra el estado del conocimiento sobre arqueosismología en la antigua ciudad romana de Baelo Claudia (Tarifa, Cádiz) tras casi quince años de investigaciones. Esta antigua ciudad romana se vio afectada por dos importantes terremotos en los años 40–60 AD y 260–290 AD. El primero de ellos afectó en mayor grado a la parte baja (costera) de la ciudad provocando importantes cambios urbanísticos y arquitectónicos (monumentalización) en respuesta a las labores de reconstrucción. El segundo de ellos provocó una mayor destrucción, cuya ruina progresiva desembocó en el abandono definitivo de la ciudad en el 365–390 AD. Se catalogan, cartografían y describen la mayor parte de los Efectos Arqueológicos de los Terremotos (EAEs) del sector monumental de la ciudad, que testifican los efectos producidos por el terremoto ocurrido en el 260–90 AD. La cartografía de daños (EAEs) muestra la distribución y orientación de los daños en la zona baja de la ciudad, así como la ocurrencia de otros procesos cosísmicos, como deslizamientos y pequeños tsunamis. El análisis estructural del conjunto de daños orientados indica que la dirección de movimiento del terreno se produjo en una dirección dominante del SO al NE. Los análisis geoarqueológicos, así como importantes anomalías constructivas y funerarias, sugieren la intervención de tsunamis de escaso poder de penetración durante los dos terremotos, apuntando a la existencia de una fuente sísmica submarina común al SSO de la ciudad. Se han identificado diferentes fallas normales de dirección N-S en la zona de la Bahía de Bolonia, algunas de las cuales se prolongan hacia el interior del mar en la zona SSO de Baelo Claudia. Estas fallas presentan claras evidencias de actividad Cuaternaria y podrían considerarse como las fuentes sísmicas más probables para los dos antiguos terremotos que afectaron a la ciudad en época romana.

The dreadful scenarios of effects caused by the recent catastrophic seismic events in very different parts of the world (from Eastern Asia to Chile and Haiti) are renewing the longlasting global debate among seismologists, geologists and engineers about the best practices and tools to achieve the most complete and reliable seismic hazard assessment. In this note we focus on three recent events that have clearly demonstrated once more that the vibratory ground motion, although a serious source of direct damage, it is by no means the only parametr that should be considered, being most damages caused by the coseismic geological effects, either directly linked to the earthquake source or provoked by the ground shaking ("Earthquake Environmental Effects", EEE). Surface faulting, regional uplift and subsidence, tsunamis, liquefaction, ground resonance, landslides, ground failure, are indeed controlled or induced by the local geological setting.

In the last twenty years, the interest of scientific community towards Earthquake Environmental Effects (EEEs) has progressively increased especially in the frame of INQUA - International Union for Quaternary Research. In 2007 the ESI 2007 (Environmental Seismic Intensity scale) was published, a new intensity scale based only on EEEs resulting by a revision process taking about 8 years, and promoted by several geologists, seismologists and engineers coordinated by Servizio Geologico d'Italia (now ISPRA). The ESI 2007 scale integrates traditional intensity scales, and allow to define seismic intensity based on the entir e scenario of effects. In 2011 the EEE Catalogue was launched, a web infrastructure realized by ISPRA for data collection of EEEs induced by recent, historical and paleoearthquakes at global level. Cataloguing and classifying EEEs has allowed to compare past seismic events and to identify the most vulnerable areas in term of site effect. Some strong earthquakes occurred in the last years have unfortunately pointed out the primary role played by geological effects in the scenario of damages, confirming that seismic hazard cannot be evaluated only based on vibratory ground motion but also on the knowledge about EEEs. This volume provides the state of knowledge about these topics, with the aim to promote the use of the ESI 2007 intensity scale, that has been translated into ten languages, and the EEE Catalogue, as an helpful tool also for land planning, especially in high seismic hazard areas.

The Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid (SCOPSCO) project is an international research initiative to study the influence of major geological and environmental events on the biological evolution of lake taxa. SCOPSCO drilling campaigns were carried out in 2011 and 2013. In 2011 we used gravity and piston coring at one of the five proposed drill sites, and in 2013 we undertook deep drilling with the Deep Lake Drilling System (DLDS) of Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust (DOSECC). In April and May 2013, a total of 2100 m sediments were recovered from four drill sites with water depths ranging from 125 to 260 m. The maximum drill depth was 569 m below the lake floor in the centre of the lake. By retrieving overlapping sediment sequences, 95% of the sediment succession was recovered. Initial data from borehole logging, core logging and geochemical measurements indicate that the sediment succession covers >1.2 million years (Ma) in a quasi-continuous sequence. These early findings suggest that the record from Lake Ohrid will substantially improve the knowledge of long-term environmental change and short-term geological events in the northeastern Mediterranean region, which forms the basis for improving understanding of the influence of major geological and environmental events on the biological evolution of endemic species.

(The Palaeolithic site Sima de las Palomas de Teba, Southern Spain –Site formation processes and chronostratigraphy): The rockshelter sequence consists of 6 m thick stone-rich silty clay loam including several archaeological levels with artefacts of Mousterian affinity, bone and charcoal. Stratigraphy and site formation processes were characterised by sedimentological, geochemical and micromorphological investigations. Sediments were dated using IRSL and OSL and the time of the last heating of burnt silex using TL. At the base of the sequence, sediment units 10 and 9 are in-situ deposits recording intensive occupation. Luminescence dating places these layers either before 33 ka (IRSL, OSL) or before 43 ka (TL).The occupation ends with a rockfall (unit 8), followed by archaeologically sterile sediments (unit 7). Mousterian occupation is again documented in scattered artefacts of units 6 to 4 which might be affected by reworking. IRSL age estimates indicated sediment deposition before 15 ka. The sequence ends with a dung rich Holocene layer including a fragment of a human mandible dated to 4032 ± 39 BP. Overall, the sequence represents an important new site for studying the presence of Neanderthals in Southern Spain.