Franck A. Audemard- Dr.
- Professor (Full) at Central University of Venezuela
Franck A. Audemard
- Dr.
- Professor (Full) at Central University of Venezuela
Research, consulting and teaching on Structural Geology, particularly on Active Tectonics. Latin America & elsewhere.
About
347
Publications
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Introduction
Venezuelan (Universidad Central de Venezuela) geo-scientist since 1985, with a PhD from Université de Montpellier (France, 1993), fond of active faults and earthquake effects in any tectonic setting. He has worked particularly along the southern Caribbean PBZ and on the North Andes Block escape tectonics, as well as in active fold-thrust belts of Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina. Principal tools applied through the over 30 years experience are: aerial photo interpretation, field mapping, neotectonics, microtectonics, geomechanics, structural geology, tectonics, seismics, paleoseismology (fault, liquefaction and tsunami trenching), historical seismology, seismotectonics, geodynamics. Career dedicated to research, teaching and consulting.
In search of new horizons and challenges!!!
Current institution
Additional affiliations
March 1995 - present
Position
- Professor
Description
- At the undergraduate level, Prof of: Structural Geology, Geodynamics, Photogeology, Geomorphology or Geologic Risk. At the graduate level: Advanced Geodynamics, Fault & Faulting, Caribbean Siemotectonics or Earthquake Geology
June 2017 - present
Position
- Professor
Description
- Professor at the undergraduate level of:Structural Geology, Geodynamics, Photogeology, Geomorphology or Geologic Risk. At the graduate level since 1999 of Advanced Geodynamics, Fault & Faulting, Caribbean Siemotectonics or Earthquake Geology
May 1986 - present
Position
- Researcher (1986=>). Former Head of Department (1998-2010)
Description
- Institution in charge of the National Seismological and Acelerographic Networks, as well as of the generation and update of the National Building Code and responsible for earthquake preparedness and education of all venezuelans
Education
September 1989 - December 1993
October 1988 - August 1989
March 1979 - December 1984
Publications
Publications (347)
En el organigrama de FUNVISIS, creada como resultado benéfico del Terremoto de Caracas de 1967, el Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra (DCT), desempeña el rol de puente entre las unidades de Sismología e Ingeniería Sísmica, cuyo desarrollo ocurrirá en 4 fases. En la inaugural (1972-1978), tal misión se efectúa sin personal especializado. Entre 19...
We show new geodetic velocity field for Western Venezuela based on repeated GNSS campaign measurements in 2011, 2013, and 2016. The 28 sites are distributed on the northern side of the Oca-Ancon fault, the eastern Maracaibo Block, and vicinities to the whole extension of the Boconó fault but particularly densified across the La Grita segment in the...
Desde finales de 2022, revisitamos algunos sitios de observación del Sistema de Posicionamiento Global (GPS por sus siglas en inglés) en la parte central de la península de Baja California. De los 10 sitios medidos, 8 contaban con mediciones previas en 2009; los dos sitios restantes LOL0 y RSJ0 fueron recién instalados y medidos por primera vez com...
Between 29° and 32° S, along the eastern border of the Andean orogen, numerous earthquakes have been recorded that have caused changes in the landscape throughout geological history. In the southwestern flank of the Matagusanos depression, located in the eastern foothills of the Precordillera Central geological province, a detailed study was conduc...
The Seismological Atlas of Venezuela in its first edition gathers 50 years of research carried out by the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research -FUNVISISS- on Seismology, Earthquake Geology, Geophysics, Seismorresitant Engineering, Social Research & Outreach. This second chapter is devoted to showcase the main cartographic results relate...
A raíz de los proyectos de microzonificación sísmica que se impulsaron después del simposio en conmemoración del Terremoto de Caracas de 1967 y del Terremoto en Cariaco de 1997, se constituyó en 2009 el departamento de Geofísica en Funvisis. Esto permitió coordinar las actividades de los proyectos liderados por la fundación, en los cuales se aplica...
The Seismological Atlas of Venezuela in its first edition brings together 50 years of research carried out by the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research -FUNVISISS- on Seismology, Seismic Geology, Geophysics, Earthquake Resistant Engineering, Social Research and Dissemination. The fifth and final chapter describes the development of socia...
El actual departamento de Geología de Terremotos (DGT), cuyo nombre fue por 45 años consecutivos departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, nace de la iniciativa llevada al efecto mediante decreto fundacional de la institución que lo alberga luego del Terremoto Cuatricentenario ocurrido el 29 de julio de 1967 a las 20:05 horas.
En ese entonces, no habí...
Northwestern South America is a plate boundary zone where the Nazca, Caribbean and South American plates interact to produce a wide area of active continental deformation from the Gulf of Guayaquil (latitude 3○S) to Venezuela. Previous studies have identified a ∼2000 km long continental sliver, referred as the North Andean Sliver (NAS), squeezed be...
This paper presents and discusses a set of particular landforms and drainage anomalies as reliable indicators of activity ob blind thrust faults underlying alluvial environments of Colombia ans Venezuela, under humid tropical conditions. The two cases studies dealt with refer to active fold-thrust belts; the eastern Perijá range front in western Ve...
The geodynamic evolution of the Gulf of Venezuela and Paraguaná Peninsula and surrounding areas has been controlled by the oblique arc-continent collision between the Caribbean oceanic plateau and the passive margin of South American and the Atlantic oceanic crust since the Paleocene to early Eocene. During this period, granitoid and volcanic rocks...
The offsets of the main active faults in northern Venezuela are discussed. The total dextral displacement along the main active faults in northern Venezuela is about 60 kilometers,during late Neogene - Holocene times.
Various depressions recognized along the large transcurrent faults in northern Venezuela have been interpreted as traction basins: Las González and Yaracuy, both associated with the Boconó fault.
The Cabudare depression, located immediately to the east of the city of Barquisimeto, is essentially surrounded by Mesozoic rocks belonging to the Caribbe...
El Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC) y la Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) presentan a la comunidad geocientífica la publicación Neotectónica y paleosismología de la Falla de Algeciras, Huila, Colombia. Este libro refleja las actividades de las dos instituciones, bajo el convenio 022 de 2019, con recursos del Sistema Genera...
Since the acceptance of plate tectonics, the presence of calc-alkaline magmatic rocks has been recognized as evidence of subduction. But under specific geodynamic circumstances, subduction may occur without generating magmas. Here, we investigate the Cenozoic northern Lesser Antilles arc where, from sparsely exposed magmatic records, Eocene−Oligoce...
In this article, we estimate the tsunami hazard in Martinique due to tsunamis generated by earthquakes associated with the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. Using a deterministic approach based on reliable earthquake scenarios, we use high-resolution bathymetric and topographic data to model tsunami propagation and inundation with Cornell Multi-grid...
Understanding the present-day crustal stress field is fundamental to comprehending active deformation in complex intraplate settings. This is especially true in the Colombian North Andean Block (C-NAB), where the Nazca, Caribbean, and South American plates interact. Our main goals of this study are: (1) to improve our understanding of seismotectoni...
The International Symposium on Andean Geodynamics (ISAG) is an international conference that was held, on average, every 3–4 years in different European cities between 1990 (Grenoble) and 2008 (Nice). These symposia usually offer an opportunity for researchers from Latin American countries and Europe as well as other countries to review the state o...
The 100 km wide Mérida Andes extend from the Colombian/Venezuelan border to the Coastal Cordillera. The mountain chain and its associated major strike-slip fault systems in western Venezuela formed due to oblique convergence of the Caribbean with the South American Plates and the north-eastwards expulsion of the North Andean Block. Due to the limit...
The continental shelf north of Central Venezuela is partially or completely structurally controlled by major right lateral strike slip
active faults (e.g. San Sebastián fault), comprising three physiographic provinces, from west to east: The Golfo Triste Platform, the Choroní Basin and the La Guaira Platform. The two mentioned platforms are of eros...
In this study, three geophysical techniques
were used to identify, localize, and characterize
a partly blind fault in the Llano Grande
basin within the Agua Fría Graben. This
tectonic basin is located in the Los Azufres
Volcanic Complex, one of the major silicic
volcanic centers in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic
Belt. The 1 km wide Agua Fría graben
cou...
Hoy se entiende que el riesgo sísmico, así como cualquier tipo de riesgo, es
proporcional a la combinación nefasta de la amenaza sísmica y la vulnerabilidad
propia de los sistemas expuestos. Considerando que la amenaza
sísmica es de origen natural, por ende no modificable o controlable por el
hombre en ninguna medida a diferencia de otras amenazas...
The continental shelf north of Central Venezuela is partially or completely structurally controlled by major right lateral strike slip active faults (e.g San Sebastian fault), comprising three physiographic provinces, from west to east: The Golfo Triste Playorm, the Choroni Basin and the La Guaira Platform. The two mentioned platforms are of erosio...
The reverse fault known as Loma Negra Oriental is located on the orogenic front of the Central Precordillera, characterized by N-S trending thrusts with eastern vergence. This fault limits the eastern flank of the Loma Negra brachianticline, a fault propagation fold that deforms Neogene rocks and Quaternary deposits outcropping on the eastern piedm...
The continental shelf north of Central Venezuela is partially or completely structurally controlled by major right lateral strike slip active faults (e.g. San Sebastián fault), comprising three physiographic provinces, from west to east: The Golfo Triste Platform, the Choroní Basin and the La Guaira Platform. The two mentioned platforms are of eros...
El terremoto del 28 de abril de 1894 ocurrido en los Andes venezolanos es uno de los más destructores del siglo XIX en este país. Dejó grandes daños materiales y pérdidas humanas en diversas poblaciones vecinas a la frontera entre Colombia y Venezuela. En la zona epicentral causó grandes grietas, dislocaciones en el terreno y eyecciones de lodo, pe...
Our study aims to reconstruct the palaeogeography of the northern part of the Lesser Antilles in order to analyse whether emerged areas might have existed during the Cenozoic, favouring terrestrial faunal dispersals between South America and the Greater Antilles along the present-day Lesser Antilles arc. The stratigraphy and depositional environmen...
For several years, under the framework of national and international projects, the number of GNSS geodetic stations has been increasing in countries located in the area comprised by the Caribbean, northwestern South America and Central America. Data from these geodetic stations have made it possible not only to meet the needs for geospatial informa...
The NNE-directed tectonic escape of the North Andean block (NAB) or sliver (NAS) with respect to South America (SA) is generally accepted now. NAS is detached from continental South America (SA) by a 2000-km-long, NE-SW-trending dominant dextral fault system, known as the Eastern Frontal Front System (EFFS; Pennington's name and acronym kept for si...
This map (JPG) is the final graphic product. The most important are the stereographies of the Compressive Vectors σ1measured in each Stations.
Este mapa (JPG) es el producto final grafico del estudio en cuestión. Lo más resaltante son las estereografías de los Vectores Compresivos σ1, medidos en cada una de las Estación de Trabajo.
This map (CorelDraw) is the final graphic product. The most important are the stereographies of the Compressive Vectors σ1 measured in each Stations.
Este mapa (CorelDraw) es el producto final gráfico del estudio en cuestión. Lo más resaltante son las estereografías de los Vectores Compresivos σ1 medidos en cada una de las Estación de Trabajo.
The Algeciras Fault System (AFS) in Colombia, which is characterized by its predominant dextral strike-slip movement, is part of the major transcurrent fault system known in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela as the Eastern Frontal Fault System, that disconnects the North Andean Block (NAB) from the South American plate in a process of tectonic escape...
La región noroccidental del continente suramericano es una de las principales zonas tectónicas activas del mundo, debido a la convergencia de las placas de Suramérica, Caribe y Nazca. Dicha interacción formó estructuras como las sierras de Santa Marta y de Perijá, Los Andes de Mérida y las cuencas del Lago de Maracaibo y Barinas-Apure (Pérez et al....
El occidente venezolano ha sido estudiado con fines geodinámicos mediante el uso de aplicaciones de geodesia espacial en los últimos treinta años por diferentes grupos de investigación (e.g.: Drewes et al., 1989; Reinoza, 2014; Pérez et al., 2018; Pousse-Beltrán et al., 2018). En los últimos años, hemos hecho uso de dos técnicas principales como so...
The Grenada back‐arc basin is located between the Aves Ridge, which hosted the remnant Early Paleogene “Great Caribbean Arc,” and the Eocene to Present Lesser Antilles Arc. Several earlier studies have proposed different modes of back‐arc opening for this basin, including N‐S and E‐W directions. The main aim of this study is to constrain the circum...
The Grenada Basin separates the active Lesser Antilles Arc from the Aves Ridge, described as a Cretaceous‐Paleocene remnant of the “Great Arc of the Caribbean.” Although various tectonic models have been proposed for the opening of the Grenada Basin, the data on which they rely are insufficient to reach definitive conclusions. This study presents,...
En este trabajo se efectúa un análisis morfotectónico y gravimétrico de la cuenca del río Talacasto, en Precordillera Central, con énfasis en el río de La Burra. Se describen además las principales estructuras con evidencia de actividad tectónica cuaternaria. La morfología irregular de la cuenca y la diversidad de depósitos aluviales encontrados a...
We explore the shear-wave lithospheric velocity structure of the Eastern Caribbean and Northern Venezuela using ambient noise tomography with stations deployed around the study area. We construct cross-correlation functions from continuous seismic records, and measure phase velocities of fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves. These velocities are further...
En el oriente venezolano se realizaron campañas de adquisición de datos geodésicos que han permitido obtener el campo de velocidades geodésicas para el Nororiente del país y caracterizar principalmente la Falla El Pilar (FEP). Desde la concepción e instalación de la red geodésica en 2003, se buscó establecer un mínimo de tres sitios de observación...
seismogenic sources do occur. This fact has led to different approaches for mapping and inventory neotectonic
structures. The South American Risk Assessment project promoted the discussion and update under uniform
standards of the available information on neotectonic deformation, for its application in regional Probabilistic
Seismic Hazard Assessme...
In South America several fold and thrust belts are located along the northern and western margin, being they related to the Caribbean and Pacific oceanic plates interactions with the continent. For many decades, several geophysical and geological studies have been developed, in order to discover new oil and gas reserves and mineral recourses. The d...
Several authors have extensively worked on active tectonics in Venezuela for decades. In order to study the inter-seismic kinematic of geological faults in western Venezuela, data acquisition campaigns were carried out in 2011, 2013, and 2016, using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. Measurement with the GNSS provides accurate...
The right-lateral strike-slip El Pilar Fault is one of the major structures that accommodate the relative displacement between the Caribbean and South-America Plates. This fault, which trends East–West along
the northeastern Venezuela margin, is a seismogenic source, and shows numerous evidence for active tectonics, including deformation of the Qua...
The 29 October, 1900, earthquake occurred in Venezuela triggered six landslides and six liquefactions located in the center-north region of Venezuela and La Tortuga island. Due to the location of the coseismic effects, the barycenter and the focal depth related to this earthquake, it was possible to calculate the magnitude by using several statisti...
Since 2015 six new continuous Global Positioning System (cGPS) and meteorological stations have been installed in Venezuela as part of the Continuously Operating Caribbean GPS Observational Network (COCONet) project (El Baúl-CN41, Quebrada Arriba-CN39, Isla de Aves-CN49, Los Roques-CN42, Isla de Margarita-CN44, and Isla La Blanquilla-CN43). Almost...
We study translation, rotation, and strain of active tectonic blocks in Northeastern Venezuela from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations. Since the installation of the geodetic network in 2003, one of the goals was to place at least three observation sites at each tectonic block to study the deformation of each one. Based on t...
Based on regional geology and stress tensor analysis from fault slickensides, we propose a structural model to explain the present-day configuration of a crystalline core in the northern Andes of Colombia (the Santander Massif - SM). The SM has undergone transpressional tectonics in a domino-style, controlled by longitudinal sinistral strike-slip f...
The northwestern region of the South American continent is one of the main active tectonic zones in the world, due to the convergence of the plates of South America, the Caribbean and Nazca. These displacements and regimes of compressive efforts formed diverse orogenic structures such as of The Santa Marta-Perijá Mountain range, The Mérida Andes an...
We present LIFFE (Lithospheric Flexure with Finite Elements), a platform designed to perform lithospheric flexure. LIFFE is an easy-to-use, flexible and open-source code intended to model the flexure of a laterally heterogeneous lithosphere affected by a complex load system. This platform can be used to further understand geodynamic and surface pro...
The integration of drainage analysis and topographic metrics provides excellent tools to assess the Quaternary tectonic activity modeling landscape evolution in evolving orogens. Furthermore, detecting active structures through the geomorphological analysis of landscapes helps to identify potentially seismogenic structures that could impact the
soc...
This work describes new evidence of Quaternary tectonic activity in the La Burra intermountain valley in the Central Precordillera, San Juan Province, Argentina. Quaternary structures are located in the eastern piedmont of the Sierra de la Crucecita, and western piedmont of the sierra de Talacasto (30º 54’–31º S and 68º 47’–68º 55’ W), about 70 km...
The Environmental Seismic Intensity scale (ESI-2007) is a recent intensity scale designed, implemented and tested to measure the damage level of an earthquake. ESI-2007 solely focuses on the impact of a seismic event on nature. In other words, it intends to establish the level of damage from observable Environmental Earthquake Effects (EEE) that a...
RESUMEN Los estudios de amenaza sísmica (EAS) realizados por FUNVISIS previos al sismo de Cariaco de 1997, solían usar la información de la franja costera para identificar, caracterizar y validar la actividad cuaternaria de fallas que la perturban, así como para establecer componentes verticales de movimientos de bloques tectónicos y/o fallas. Por...
The right-lateral strike slip Boconó Fault (Mérida Andes, northern Venezuela)accommodates an important part of the South-American Plate northern transform boundary. Along its central portion, preserved post-LMG lake fills are intersected by two surface-reaching active traces which could be trenched just beside. Outcropping and cored lacustrine sedi...
This research shows a clear increase in shallow seismicity in the 21st century, after the Cariaco July 09th, 1997 earthquake, from the qualitative-quantitative analysis of a more than 30-year-long record of instrumental seismicity (1983-2017). The seismic activity increase is not randomly distributed but comes in patches, which align along with the...
La presente investigación muestra que la región oriental venezolana se caracteriza por una mayor actividad sísmica en el presente siglo XXI, después de la ocurrencia del sismo de Cariaco del 09 de julio de 1997 de magnitud Mw 6,9, a partir del análisis cualitativo-cuantitativo de la sismicidad instrumental sobre una ventana temporal de más de 30 añ...
We study the isostatic behaviour of major structures in the Eastern Caribbean, namely the Aves Ridge, the Venezuela Basin, the Grenada Basin and the Lesser Antilles Arc. Based on isostatic regional and residual anomalies, gravitational admittance and flexural modelling, we analyse topographic, gravity and crustal thickness information. We fiend tha...
On October 29, 1900 a great earthquake hit Venezuela territory. Its effects extended over the north central region. The towns of Macuto, Guatire and Guarenas and the villages located in the coast of Barlovento suffered heavy damages: a great number of their houses and temples were destroyed. On the other hand, tsunami waves and liquefaction phenome...
The 29 October 1900 earthquake occurred in Venezuela is one of the most devastating of which there are historical records due to the human life loss and great amount of material damages in the epicentral region. Most of the authors who have studied this earthquake in the past agree in an offshore epicenter, although their exact location and magnitu...
We study the isostatic behavior of major structures in the Eastern Caribbean, namely the Aves Ridge, the Venezuela Basin, the Grenada Basin and the Lesser Antilles Arc. Based on isostatic regional and residual anomalies, gravitational admittance and flexural modeling, we analyse topographic, gravity and crustal thickness information. We find that t...
The Holocene tectonic activity of Latin American countries is poorly constrained because of the short time span of the instrumental record and the lack of any seismic calendar during pre-colonization times. Therefore, some areas with low and diffused seismicity have been catalogued as a “seismic gap”. It has been suggested that the northernmost seg...
En el marco del proyecto Geociencia Integral de Los Andes de Mérida (GIAME) se realizaron en los años 2012 a 2015 investigaciones litosféricas de Los Andes de Mérida con la adquisición de tres perfiles sísmicos de gran ángulo, perpendiculares al rumbo del orógeno, y algunos perfiles complementarios a lo largo del eje de la cadena, para una longitud...
We use new and compiled geochronology and radiometric dates from the area of Venezuela to Tobago to define the following crustal provinces: 1) Guyana shield forms a sub-circular area of Pan-African rocks against which all younger terranes have collided and partially assumed its rounded shape: ages for the Guyana Shield range from >3.
The occurrence of tsunami waves on the eastern Caribbean Venezuelan coasts during 5 Venezuelan (local) earthquakes (01-IX-1530, 15-VII-1853, 29-X-1900, 17-I-1929 and 9-VII-1997), have been confirmed through the search and evaluation of written accounts by primary sources (eye witnesses) of tsunami inundation during these events. Among the outcomes...
An interesting variety of field evidence that collectively cover the three branches of Earthquake Geology: Neotectonics, Paleoseismology and Historical seismicity, has been collected in the border area between Venezuela and Colombia, near the town of San José de Cúcuta, as part of a study aimed at establishing the seismic source of the great Cucuta...
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery provides an invaluable source of physical information on the Earth's surface. From the comparison of two or more observations, pre and post event, changes product of anthropic or natural activities can be identified and quantified through multitemporal studies. In the following document, we assesses the applic...
Abstract— In order to study the kinematics of faults associated with earthquakes in Venezuela, several studies have been carried out since 2003. This effort includes field observations of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in more than 70 points in eastern and western country, data processing, modelling, and analysis. From 2015 and 2016,...
This book compiles a set of papers regarding the Caracas 1967 Earthquake and how the study and learned lessons of this earthquake have been integrated in the urban planning of the city and the risk mitigation program. This document only includes Chapter 8 dealing with the Seismic Microzoning study of the city of Caracas.
El sismo de Cariaco de 1997 nos permitió, como institución y a título personal, identificar ciertas debilidades que presentábamos para el momento, en lo cognitivo, metodológico e instrumental. Empezando por el último aspecto, la dificultad que tuvimos desde FUNVISIS de “amarrar” o precisar la magnitud del evento, por limitaciones técnicas de la red...
The Boconó fault is a strike-slip fault lying between the North Andean Block and the South American plate which has triggered at least five Mw > 7 historical earthquakes in Venezuela. The North Andean Block is currently moving toward NNE with respect to a stable South American plate. This relative displacement at ~12 mm yr−1 in Venezuela (within th...
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an internal forcing of the climate system. This event has an actual frequency of 2 to 8 years. Evidence from a paleoclimate proxy database of gray scale (GS), in samples from Pallcacocha lake in Ecuador, indicates that the ENSO had a frequency of 35 to 75 years during the Late Pleistocene. In this work we expl...
A set of 24 AMS ¹⁴C measurements were performed on different sediment fractions from short gravity cores taken from the Gulf of Cariaco (northeastern Venezuela) in order to construct a detailed sedimentary archive for recent centuries. A local reservoir effect was expected because of i) strong upwelling from the neighboring Cariaco Trough and anoxi...
Desde hace más de una década investigadores de FUNVISIS han trabajado en el estudio de la geodinámica local y regional a partir de mediciones geodésicas por campaña (e.g. Oriente 2003, 2005 y 2011, Occidente 2011, 2013 y 2016), sin embargo desde inicios del año 2015 y en el marco del proyecto Red de Observación de Operación Continua GPS del Caribe...
By applying receiver functions technique we studied the crustal thic- kness and mechanical properties of the Lesser Antilles Arc. We gathered teleseismic data recorded from broadband stations deployed along the arc by different networks. The analysis of P-to-S conversion and crustal reverberations allowed us to estimate the Moho depth and the avera...
In eastern Venezuela, the Caribbean - South American plate boundary follows the El Pilar fault system. Previous studies based on three GPS campaigns (2003 – 2005 – 2013) demonstrated that the El Pilar fault accommodates the whole relative displacement between the two tectonic plates (20 mm/yr) and proposed that 50 – 60 % of the slip is aseismic [Jo...
Subduction earthquakes are commonly regarded as the most significant seismic threat for South America. However, historic destructive earthquakes related to shallow crustal sources have occurred onshore where many important cities, capital towns and critical facilities are settled nearby faults, whose seismogenic capability is known or suspected. De...
In the Mérida Andes, a detailed deglaciation history reconstruction is difficult to achieve due to scattered deglaciation chronologies available. This paper contributes with 24 exposure ages of glacial landforms sampled in the Gavidia valley. Exposure ages were obtained based on terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide 10Be dating. Results indicate deglaciat...
This special issue follows from the Symposium “Regional Moment
Tensor Solutions: advances and new applications” held in
Bogotá, Colombia, at the I Regional Assembly of the IASPEI's Latin
American and Caribbean Seismological Commission (LACSC) in
2014. Seven papers are presented dealing with determination of moment
tensors, focal mechanisms and the...
Resumen: El sitio de trinchera se ubica en Santa Rosa, al este de Caracas. En este sector, la falla corta una secuencia de depósitos de ladera adosados al pie del macizo del Ávila, y presenta evidencias de movimiento de tipo transcurrente dextral con componente normal. La datación 14C de los marcadores de fallamiento obtenidos en la trinchera, esti...
This paper presents a compilation of 16 present-day stress tensors along the southern Caribbean plate boundary zone (PBZ), and particularly in western and along northern Venezuela. As a trial, these new stress tensors along PBZ have been calculated from inversion of 125 focal mechanism solutions (FMS) by applying the Angelier & Mechler's dihedral m...
Las olas tsunami o cualquier modificación temporal de un cuerpo de agua asociada a un evento sísmico, son fenómenos geológicos poco conocidos en Venezuela. Se puede señalar que tal desconocimiento es teórico e histórico; es decir, en líneas generales se desconoce qué son, cómo se comportan y cuáles han sido los fenómenos –ya sean de origen local o...
Resumen
El terremoto ocurrido en el año de 1736 en el centro occidente de Venezuela es un misterio tanto histórico como sismológico. Se trataba de un terremoto poco conocido y que apenas estaba representado en el registro sísmico venezolano. Al momento de iniciar la investigación solo se conocía una referencia que ubicaba el sismo en la ciudad de...
The Matagusanos-Maradona-Acequión Valley sits within the Andes Precordillera fold-thrust belt of western Argentina. It is an elongated topographic depression bounded by the roughly N-S trending Precordillera Central and Oriental in the San Juan Province. Moreover, it is not a piggy-back basin as we could have expected between two ranges belonging t...
La Falla de Boconó (FB), estructura mayor de la frontera transpresiva entre las placas Caribe y Suramérica,
presenta claras evidencias geomórficas diagnósticas de transcurrencia dextral cuaternaria en su sector más septentrional (Boc-e), ubicado a lo largo del margen noroeste de la depresión del río Yaracuy. Dos excavaciones paleosísmicas, ejecutad...
Questions
Questions (5)
After having to evaluate dozens of colleague's CVs either to award scientific prizes/awards/distinctions or recrute personnel, I have come to ask myself: Does H Index actually measure the scientific productivity of an individual and/or his/her abilty to work within a productive group? To overcome this, I had to find a way of comparing actual individual's scientific productivity. So far, the only way I have found to be more objective has been to improve metrics by additionally checking how many times the individual has been first (or corresponding) author of the papers being authored! This more realistic quantification, nevertheless, has become tougher when such individual has been (PhD, MSc) advisor of the first author since the ideas developed in the paper can either be his/hers or not.....
However, many aspects of science and research can not be deifinitely filtered or taken into account. It is clear that the H Index is strongly influenced (biased?), beyond the individual's quality/excellency, by the excellency of the institution in which the individual actually works; or the strength of the individual/institution/working group to raise money and produce cutting-edge science, in the frame of healthy scientific collaborations with equally excellent pairs. Therefore, in such cases, the individual's productivity reflects the country in which he/she develops research and the scientific associations developrd with pairs. Researchers working out of those countries with high investment in science, have to struggle harder in many ways...
Another completely different aspect that becomes intangible, which is reflected in the actual citation results, is the scientific object described or studied. For instance, If a scientist in geosciences choose to study the largest mountain chain of the world (e.g., The Himalayas), only considering the potential readership interested in this subject -China and India as involved countries in the formation of this spectacular chain-, the citation will rocket to the sky, without considering that the geological object is singular in itself!! Someone working on another equally amazing chain like the Andes has lost the race from the very beginning.....(This regardless that the readership may not read English!). In addition, it may also depend on the discipline or method chosen, considering whether it is in fashion or not (e.g. Climate Change, Satellite-related data and so on with respect to more conventional ones).
What are your feelings about this? Your thoughts? Your own experience?
Wishful thinking or at loud thinking?
Let us define it as "mono-brainstorming"!!!!
Shouldn't we, as humankind, start thinking about controlling population growth instead of worrying just about climate change or global warming?
What is the actual cause of Global Warming? or Earth endangering as a system?
Aren't we, as a DOMINANT SPECIES, the cause of all troubles?
Blaming oil/gas burning as the cause of all problems the Earth system is facing, is a bit simplistic.... And controlling the gas emissions is just an aspirine to cure the globe from a metastatic cancer....
The progressive endangering of the Earth System in a hollistic manner is the consequence of a single species modifying everything in its favor... but the system needs to adapt and react...... Are we sure where this reaction will take us? It seems that the reaction is not heading where we would like it to go and it is also endangering us as a species....
I start to believe that we are already too many humans on this planet and the process seems irreversible if we do not take drastic solutions at once. An aspirine is not going to save/cure us from a cancer.....
I wish to hear your comments and reactions!!!!
It is said that fossil fuels, particularly oil & gas, comsuption is the main cause of carbon dioxide production that leads to global warming in the last 40 years or so....
If these fuels were not blamed, could any research on cleaner (greener) energies had been easily justified, being so costly? Does anyone have the idea of how much just exponential population increase impacts global temperature? It is clear that the northern hemisphere is the more affected one by this actual temperature increase. Should we start thinking of controlling expansion of human beings on Earth for the sake of the planet (pollution & contamination reduction) and our own survival? Just out loud thinking!!!!
I am looking for proven cases where serpentinites are responsible for creeping along faults or fault segments. In the same way, if slow-sleep events are related to the presence of large serpentinite bodies.
Si tienen a bien incorporarme como colaborador al proyecto, de repente, puedo adherir publicaciones que se han realizado en el marco del proyecto, en la subacción "DEFORMACIONES PERMANENTES"
