Scientific cooperation continues after the Le Teil earthquake in 2019

From the first hours after the Le Teil earthquake (magnitude 4.9 Mw), on November 11, 2019, the French scientific community gathered within Résif collaborated to ensure the deployment of mobile instruments, the analysis of data, the pooling of skills (See the news of jan. 19 2021 and feb. 10 2020).

Today, more than two years later and despite health restrictions, this scientific cooperation continues. The aim is to determine the implications for risk assessment (identification of active faults, paleoseismological investigations to locate potential surface rupture threats) and for understanding the causes of intraplate seismicity. Two articles recently published in the framework of the Active Faults France axis of the Resif Seismicity Transverse Action testify to this cooperation and call for “maintaining this spirit of cooperation for the future”. The first, dated December 2021, was published in the special issue of Comptes-rendus Géoscience on the seismicity of France. It emphasizes that “knowledge of active faults is still largely fragmentary, and that major efforts are needed to generate robust data, especially on the many faults that are not yet studied.” Several examples of recent studies along presumed active faults are presented in a variety of settings such as mountainous areas, their forelands, or more remote low-lying regions. These examples illustrate the implementation of new approaches and tools for the characterization of the Quaternary activity of potentially active faults in metropolitan France. The second has just been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Entitled “Ground ruptured, community united,” it reminds us that “the scientific community has worked together to determine the implications [of the Le Teil earthquake] for risk assessment” and that “we must now maintain this spirit of cooperation for the future.” Both are open access.

References

• Jean-François Ritz & al. New perspectives in studying active faults in metropolitan France: the “Active faults France” (FACT/ATS) research axis from the Resif-Epos consortium. Comptes Rendus. Géoscience, Tome 353 (2021) no. S1, pp. 381-412. doi : 10.5802/crgeos.98.
• Baize, S., Ritz, JF. Post-publication careers: ground ruptured, community united. Commun Earth Environ 3, 61 (2022). doi : 10.1038/s43247-022-00392-y

To know more

• News on CNRS-INSU web site about CR Geoscience article
  
• Active Faults France (FACT) axis of the Resif Seismicity Transverse Action
• Thematic issue of Comptes-rendus Géoscience about Seismicity in France