Intraplate Earthquakes

Intraplate earthquakes occur away from tectonic plate boundaries: their locations are difficult to predict, risking huge damage and loss of life. The 2001 Bhuj earthquake (featured in this book) was the largest intraplate earthquake for three decades and has provided unique insight into these events. This cutting-edge book brings together research from international leading experts in the field. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of these earthquakes in a different global location, ranging from Australia, China, India and the Sea of Japan, to Western Europe, Brazil, New Madrid (Central USA), and Eastern Canada. They explore similarities and differences between regional features and the mechanical models required to explain them, as well as assessing geophysical techniques used to investigate them. Providing the first global overview of intraplate earthquakes, this is an essential book for academic researchers and professionals in seismology, tectonics, tectonophysics, geodesy, structural geology, earthquake dynamics, geophysics, and structural engineering.

List of contributors; 1. Introduction Pradeep Talwani; 2. Intraplate earthquakes in Australia Dan Clark, Andrew McPherson and T. Allen; 3. Intraplate seismicity in Brazil Marcelo Assumpção, Joaquim Ferreira, Lucas Barros, Hilario Bezzera, George Sand França, José Roberto Barbosa, Eduardo Menezes, Luís Carlos Ribotta, Marlon Pirchiner, Aderson do Nascimento and João Carlos Dourado; 4. Earthquakes and geological structures of the St Lawrence Rift System Maurice Lamontagne and Giorgio Ranalli; 5. Intraplate earthquakes in North China Mian Liu, Hui Wang, Jiyang Ye and Cheng Jia; 6. Seismogenesis of earthquakes occurring in the ancient rift basin of Kachchh, Western India B. K. Rastogi, Prantik Mandal and S. K. Biswas; 7. The New Madrid seismic zone of the Central United States Roy Van Arsdale; 8. The impact of earthquake activity in Western Europe from the historical and architectural heritage records Thierry Camelbeeck, Pierre Alexandre, Alain Sabbe, Elisabeth Knuts, David Garcia Moreno and Thomas Lecocq; 9. Intraplate earthquakes induced by reactivation of buried ancient rift system along the eastern margin of the Japan Sea Aitaro Kato; 10. Deep controls on intraplate basin inversion Sören B. Nielsen, Randell Stephenson and Christian Schiffer; 11. Unified model for intraplate earthquakes Pradeep Talwani; 12. Intraplate seismic hazard: evidence for distributed strain and implications for seismic hazard Susan E. Hough; 13. Conclusions Pradeep Talwani; Index.

Pradeep Talwani is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of South Carolina. He has over thirty years' experience researching intraplate earthquakes, particularly in the Eastern US and Canada, and is a leading authority on the largest intraplate earthquake to strike the Eastern US in recorded history: the 1886 event at Charleston, South Carolina. Professor Talwani served as Director of the South Carolina Seismic Network from 1990 until 2009, when he retired, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.