José A. Álvarez-Gómez

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• Ph.D. Geodynamics
• Professor (Associate - Titular) at Complutense University of Madrid

The Eastern Betic cordillera, southeastern Spain, is characterized by slow tectonic deformation rates and moderate seismicity. Great uncertainties persist regarding the precise kinematics of the main fault system within the region, the Eastern Betic Shear Zone (EBSZ). We present a new GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) velocity field in the...

From the analysis of 542 moment tensor focal mechanisms in Iberia, active tectonic deformations and stresses were inferred by implementing different and complementary methodologies: FMC classification of the rupture type; composed focal mechanism based on the average seismic moment tensor; rotation angle between tensors estimates; Right Dihedra com...

The Trans‐Alboran Shear Zone is one of the most seismically active areas in the westernmost Mediterranean, where a wide variety of tectonic domains have developed within the context of oblique convergence between Eurasia and Africa plates. In this region, earthquakes occur close to seismogenic structures, some of them large enough to cause damaging...

Physics‐based earthquake simulators are an increasingly popular modeling tool in earthquake forecasting for seismic hazard as well as fault rupture behavior studies. Their popularity comes from their ability to overcome completeness limitations of real catalogs, and also because they allow reproducing complex fault rupture and interaction patterns...

Analyzing 533 moment tensor focal mechanisms in Iberia has uncovered active tectonic deformations and stresses, utilizing diverse methodologies to analyze the deformation, encompassing the FMC diagram, composed focal mechanism with the average moment tensor, rotation angle estimation, the Flinn diagram, Right Dihedra focal mechanism composition, Sl...

Tanto las normas sismorresistentes europeas (Eurocódigo-8), como el proyecto de nueva norma de construcción sismorresistente española (NCSR-23) contemplan la presencia de fallas activas en el diseño. La NCSR-23 incluye la distancia a la falla como parámetro de diseño fundamental para edificación general y para estructuras singulares, como puentes y...

These files comprise supplementary information for the paper entitled "New 3D velocity model (mTAB3D) for absolute hypocenter location in southern Iberia and the westernmost Mediterranean" and submitted to Earth and Space Science (manuscript #2023EA002993-TR). These results were obtained after performing a relocation using the 3D P-wave velocity m...

The Trans-Alboran Shear Zone is one of the most seismically active areas in the westernmost Mediterranean, where a wide variety of tectonic domains have developed within the context of oblique convergence between Eurasia and Africa plates. In this region, earthquakes occur close to seismogenic structures, some of them large enough to cause damaging...

The use of physics-based earthquake simulators is increasingly common in earthquake forecasting for seismic hazard. Their popularity is related to their ability to overcome completeness limitations of real seismicity catalogues, while reproducing complex earthquake rupture behavior and interaction patterns through the modelling of the physical proc...

Understanding the crustal fault interaction and connection between earthquakes in areas with slow tectonic deformation, such as Betic Cordillera (South Spain), is challenging. When seismic rates are low and large destructive earthquakes happen less frequently, it is necessary to resort to historical or paleoseismic records. This study investigates...

On 2022-02-01, the mainshock of a seismic sequence that started in 2021 struck between l'Alt Urgell (Catalonia) and Andorra la Vella (Andorra) in the Central Pyrenees area. This magnitude (Mw) 4.0 earthquake, which alerted the population of the vicinities, was followed by low-magnitude aftershocks. In this work, we aim to obtain a new catalog throu...

Strike-slip fault ruptures have a limited capacity to generate vertical deformation, and for this reason they are usually dismissed as potential destructive tsunami sources. At the western tip of the western Mediterranean, in the Alboran Sea, tectonics is characterized by the presence of large transcurrent fault systems and minor reverse and normal...

The Eastern Betics Cordillera embraces a zone of low-to-moderate seismic activity located at the SE of the Iberian Peninsula. However, a major active fault system which crosses the area, ca. 500 km long, known as the Eastern Betics Shear Zone (EBSZ), has been responsible for the occurrence of several large historical earthquakes (Mw> 6.0) since the...

The Trans-Alboran Shear Zone is one of the most seismically active areas in the westernmost Mediterranean, where a wide variety of tectonic domains have developed within the context of oblique convergence between Eurasia and Africa plates. In this region, earthquakes occur close to seismogenic structures, some of them large enough to cause damaging...

To produce seismic hazard assessments to the current state-of-the-art, it is essential to characterize the active faults in terms of geometry, interrelation and seismotectonic status. The Guadalentin Depression is the main basin within the Eastern Betic Shear Zone, which corresponds to a NE-SW tectonic corridor bounded by the Carrascoy, Alhama de M...

Strike-slip fault ruptures have a limited capacity to generate vertical deformation, and for this reason they are usually dismissed as potential destructive tsunami sources. At the western tip of the western Mediterranean, in the Alboran Sea, tectonics is characterized by the presence of large transcurrent fault systems and minor reverse and normal...

The El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ) is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc and accommodates the oblique separation movement between the forearc sliver and the Chortis block (Caribbean Plate). In this work, a triclinic transtension model was applied to geological (fault-slip inversion, shape of volcanic calderas), seismic (focal mechanisms) and...

Resumen La obtención de un perfil térmico en profundidad en fallas activas, permite establecer el gradiente geotérmico y el flujo de calor, los cuales se hayan relacionados con la tasa de deformación tectónica (Pérez-López et al., 2017). Hemos utilizado dos sensores de temperatura modelo SEABIRD SBE56 con una precisión de 0,002 ºC dentro de un rang...

La adquisición de datos digitales nos ha llevado a obtener Modelos 3D de afloramientos de campo y de muestra rocosas que permiten establecer una enseñanza en detalle de numerosos aspectos docentes en la mayoría de las asignaturas de los grados de Geología, Ingeniería Geológica y en asignaturas relacionadas con la Geología en el Grado de Ingeniería...

Tsunami hazard can be analyzed from both deterministic and probabilistic points of view. The deterministic approach is based on a “credible” worst case tsunami, which is often selected from historical events in the region of study. Within the probabilistic approach (PTHA, Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis), statistical analysis can be carried o...

In regions with slow‐moving faults, the incompleteness of earthquake and fault data complicates the study of seismic hazard. The instrumental and historical seismic catalogs cover a short period compared with the long‐time interval between major events. Paleoseismic evidence allows us to increase the time frame of actual observations, but data is s...

The eastern Betics shear zone comprises one of the most seismically active areas in Iberia, due to the presence of large active faults loaded by the oblique convergence between Eurasia and Africa plates. We focus our study on the sector of the eastern Betic Cordillera affected by the Alhama de Murcia fault (AMF) and other nearby faults that are the...

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In this work we present a review of the current state of knowledge of the active faults in El Salvador and its seismo-tectonic implications. An updated map of active fault traces is combined with the spatial analysis of shallow seismicity, focal mechanisms, recent geodetic GPS velocities, local strain estimations and morpho-tectonic features to pro...

The Alhama de Murcia Fault is one of the main active structures of the Eastern Betic Shear Zone (SE Spain), characterized by the presence, along its trace, of Neogene basins developed under early to late Miocene extensional tectonics. A dominant NNW‐SSE shortening direction is active from late Miocene driven by the present‐day plate convergence. We...

Different kinematic models have been proposed for the triple junction between the North American, Cocos and Caribbean plates. The two most commonly accepted hypotheses on its driving mechanism are (a) the North American drag of the forearc and (b) the Cocos Ridge subduction push. We present an updated GPS velocity field which is analyzed together w...

The NE sector of the Alhama de Murcia fault (Eartern Betic Shear Zone, SE Iberia) has been commonly considered as a fault section with hardly any Quaternary tectonic activity. The lack of geomorphological evidence showing a recent activity results in an absence of slip data estimated at the northern termination of the Alhama de Murcia fault. Approx...

This study is composed of both ongoing excavations and definitive results of analyses done with the aim of unravel the architecture of the shear zone and the complexities of its kinematics of different domains that compose the Alhama de Murcia Fault (AMF). We have resorted to the analytic model of general triclinic transpression with oblique extrus...

Elucidating the internal structure of the Alhama de Murcia Fault (AMF) in SE Spain is essential to proper understanding its seismological behavior. To this end, a structural analysis from detailed mapping, trenches and a 174 m deep borehole, was performed in the Goñar-Lorca section of the AMF, where the fault zone is better exposed and the deformat...

Seismicity is frequently used to deduce the tectonics of a region. The study of earthquakes as a tectonic component, seismotectonics, has grown as one of the key research areas on active tectonics, especially from the analysis of earthquake focal mechanisms. FMC computes the different earthquake parameters that can be obtained from focal mechanism...

Constraining the date of the last major event occurred in a fault is of paramount importance in probabilistic seismic hazard assessment when time-dependent models are considered. Eight of the twelve destructive earthquakes occurred in the eastern Betic Cordillera since sixteenth century, are located less than 10 km away from the Alhama de Murcia fa...

Pacific islands are spread over thousands of kilometres of the Pacific Basin and are characterised by similar ecological features but very diverse geologic origins, from steep volcanoes to flat coral atolls. Several climatic phases have been shared across the region within the last 1,000 years. Numerous and abrupt societal and cultural changes duri...

We present a map and a data set containing information about intra-plate seismic sources in El Salvador. These are the results of the field campaigns and data analysis carried out by the research group of Planetary Geodinamics, Active Tectonics and Related Risks from Complutense University of Madrid during the last 12 years. We include two maps, th...

Advances in the understanding of tsunami impacts allow developing products to assess its consequences in tsunami-prone areas, as it is the case of the coast of the Sultanate of Oman. This paper presents the followed methodology and the obtained results for the assessment of the tsunami hazard of the coast of Oman and the development of the scenario...

In this paper, we present the first velocity field from cGNSS (continuous GNSS) stations in the Continuous Monitoring GNSS Network (REGME) in Ecuador. We have analyzed data from 33 cGNSS REGME stations for the 2008–2014 period in order to characterize horizontal crustal motion and deformation in Ecuador. Prior to this, we analyzed the time series f...

We present here the preliminary results of a geometrical analysis in the NE end of the Alhama de Murcia Fault (Eastern Betic Shear Zone). We focus on a fold related to the tectonic inversion due to the NW-SE convergence started in the Upper Miocene. A 3D model and a cross-section restoration have been used to estimate the shortening and the slip ra...

It has long been recognized that earthquakes change the stress in the upper crust around the fault rupture and can influence the behaviour of neighbouring faults and volcanoes. Rapid estimates of these stress changes can provide the authorities managing the post-disaster situation with valuable data to identify and monitor potential threads and to...

During the last years, several crustal seismic sources have been proposed in El Salvador; however, the actual destructive potential of these proposals has not been revealed yet. Here we present several seismic scenarios related with the main crustal faults in the country. We have characterized the corresponding hazard scenarios in a deterministic w...

Subduction requires the permanent generation of a bend fold in the subducting slab which mechanics is not well understood. Lithospheric bending of subducting slabs was traditionally considered to be accommodated by orthogonal flexure, generating extensional outer rise earthquakes responsible of the external arc elongation during folding. Here we ex...

El Salvador is located at the pacific active margin of Central America, here, the subduction of the Cocos Plate under the Caribbean Plate with a rate of ca. 80 mm/yr is the main seismic source. However, the relative eastward drift of the Caribbean plate induces deformations within the Central American Volcanic Arc, and active faults within it have...

It has long been recognized that earthquakes change the stress in the upper crust around the fault rupture and can influence the behaviour of neighbouring faults and volcanoes. Rapid estimates of these stress changes can provide the authorities managing the post-disaster situation with valuable data to identify and monitor potential threads and to...

It has long been recognized that earthquakes change the stress in the upper crust around the fault rupture and can influence the short-term behaviour of neighbouring faults and volcanoes. Rapid estimates of these stress changes can provide the authorities managing the post-disaster situation with a useful tool to identify and monitor potential thre...

Aims and Methods The structural evolution of the western boundary of the Chortis Block, particularly in the Central America Volcanic Arc crossing El Salvador is poorly known. We have done a kinematic analysis from seismic and fault slip data and combined our results with a review of previous regional studies. This approach allowed us to constrain...

Active fault databases are a very powerful and useful tool in seismic hazard assessment, particularly when singular faults are considered seismogenic sources. Active fault databases are also a very relevant source of information for earth scientists, earthquake engineers and even teachers or journalists. Hence, active fault databases should be upda...

We present an automated free software-based toolchain to obtain Coulomb Failure Stress change maps on fault planes of interest following the occurrence of a relevant earthquake. The system uses as input the focal mechanism data of the event occurred and an active fault database for the region. From the focal mechanism the orientations of the possib...

The Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA) is located at the western margin of the Caribbean plate, over the Chortís Block, spanning from Guatemala to Costa Rica. The CAVA is associated to the subduction of the Cocos plate under the Caribbean plate at the Middle America Trench. Our study is focused in the Salvadorian CAVA segment, which is tectonical...

Active fault databases are a very powerful and useful tool in seismic hazard assessment, particularly when singular faults are considered as seismogenic sources. Active fault databases are also a very relevant source of information for earth scientists, earthquake engineers and even teachers or journalists. Active fault databases, hence, should be...

En este trabajo se presenta el canal de vídeos online STEREOVIDEO ubicado en el sitio web YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/geostereovideo). Se trata de un canal de vídeos didácticos de corta duración (< 5 min) destinados al aprendizaje del manejo de la técnica de la proyección estereográfica aplicada a la Geología Estructural y a la Ingeniería...

We present the preliminary results of the borehole FAM-1 a 175 m depth scientific drilling of the Alhama de Murcia fault. The borehole was drilled close to La Torrecilla rambla three km SW of Lorca where the fault zone shearing is more concentrated and it is dominated by well-developed clay rich fault gouge. To select the drilling point and to perf...

We have used hypsometric analysis to improve our understanding of the current tectonic deformation and structure of El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ); a ~N90°E oriented strike-slip fault zone that extends 150 km through El Salvador, Central America. Our results indicate an important amount of transtensive strain along this fault zone, providing new dat...

From the analysis of the geological map, neotectonic field observations and morphotectonic analysis of aerial photography, digital elevation models, and fluvial network geometry, we have identified the existence of an active fault poorly known so far. Such a tectonic feature, referred as Guaycume fault, is located just 15 km north of San Salvador....

El análisis de diferentes fuentes sísmicas en El Salvador ha permitido estimar los parámetros cinemáticos necesarios para su consideración en el cálculo de amenaza sísmica. En esta comunicación presentamos los resultados de la simulación de escenarios sísmicos asociados a diferentes rupturas de fallas que componen la Zona de Falla de El Salvador (Z...

The earthquakes in January and February 2001 in El Salvador are a clear example of the influence of stress transfer in seismic hazard. The Mw 7.7 January earthquake was an intraslab normal faulting event. This earthquake increased the Coulomb Failure Stress in the volcanic arc, triggering the Mw 6.6 February event. This relationship between subduct...

In this work, we present a new seismic hazard assessment in El Salvador taking into account the major structures in the zone. We model faults as independent seismogenic sources. This makes it possible to apply a hybrid methodology, in combination seismogenic area-sources and faults with known data, thus obtaining a more reliable and accurate map of...

The El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ) (Martínez-Díaz et al., 2004) is the main structure seismically active in El Salvador. This structure plays an important role in the tectonics of the Chortis block, since its motion is directly related to the drift of the Caribbean plate to the east and not with the partitioning of the deformation of the Cocos subdu...

The Los Tollos Fault is a recent and important feature of the Eastern Betic Shear Zone, one of the major tectonic structures in South Iberia accommodating the convergence between Nubian and Eurasian plates in the western Mediterranean. The Los Tollos Fault became active by the end of Middle Pleistocene introducing some paleogeographical modificatio...

The Carrascoy Fault (CAF) is one of the main active faults that form part of the Eastern Betic Shear Zone, a 450 km fault system that accommodates most of the convergence between the Eurasian (Iberia) and Nubian plates in the Betic Cordillera, South Spain. Although the CAF represents a major earthquake threat to the nearby City of Murcia, studies o...

Los eventos de tsunami suponen una amenaza natural de baja frecuencia pero con un gran poder destructivo, causando la pérdida de miles de vidas humanas y daños en infraestructuras costeras de todo el mundo. Los avances en el conocimiento sobre los mecanismos de generación y propagación proporcionan una mejora en el pronóstico de los impactos que pu...

The El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ) is an active, c. 150 km long and 20 km wide, segmented, dextral strike-slip fault zone within the Central American Volcanic Arc striking N100° E. Although several studies have investigated the surface expression of the ESFZ, little is known about its structure at depth and its kinematic evolution. Structural field...

The El Salvador Fault Zone, firstly identified after the 13th February 2001 Mw 6.6 El Salvador earthquake, is a 150 km long, 20 km wide right-lateral strike-slip fault system. Ruptures along the ESFZ are thought to be responsible for most of the historical destructive earth- quakes along the El Salvador Volcanic Arc, as well as for most of the curr...

Rating the credibility of fault seismic parameters (maximum magnitude, average recurrence period) is an increasing demand from seismic hazard analysts and seismic engineers which make use of national-scope active fault databases for their projects. We proposed that the credibility of fault seismic parameters should be based on the reliability of th...

In the regions where few field neotectonics and paleoseismic studies have been performed (e.g., Central America), the interpretation of the seismic sources responsible for the historical (preinstrumental) catastrophic earthquakes lies almost entirely in the spatial distribution of damage interpreted from historical sources, mainly fragmentary writt...

We have used hypsometric analysis to improve our understanding of the current tectonic deformation and structure of El Salvador Fault Zone; a N90ºE oriented strike-slip fault zone that extends 150 km through El Salvador, Central America. Our results indicate an important amount of transtensive strain along this fault zone, providing new data to und...

El Salvador is located at the pacific active margin of Central America, here, the subduction of the Cocos Plate under the Caribbean Plate at a rate of �80 mm/yr is the main seismic source. Although the seismic sources located in the Central American Volcanic Arc have been responsible for some of the most damaging earthquakes in El Salvador. The El...

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow for the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. This paper presents a tsunami vulnerability and risk assessment for the case study of El Salvador, the applied methodology dealing with the complexity and variability of coastal zones by means of (i) an int...

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. Conducting adequate tsunami risk assessments is essential, as the hazard, vul-nerability and risk assessment results allow the identification of adequate, site-specific and vulnerability-oriented risk managemen...

Although in the recent history of the Persian Gulf there is no register of relevant tsunamis, there are some historical events that could have generated destructive tsunamis and where historical descriptions of flooding are present. In 978, 1008 and 1871 destructive earthquakes occurred in the northern area of the Persian Gulf. These events where g...

The analysis of earthquake focal mechanisms (or Seismic Moment Tensor, SMT) is a key tool on seismotectonics research. Each focal mechanism is characterized by several location parameters of the earthquake hypocenter, the earthquake size (magnitude and scalar moment tensor) and some geometrical characteristics of the rupture (nodal planes orientati...

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. This paper presents an integral framework for the formulation of tsunami evacuation plans based on tsunami vulnerability assessment and evacuation modelling. This framework considers (i) the hazard aspects (tsu...

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America; its coast has approximately a length of 320 km, 29 municipalities and more than 700 000 inhabitants. In El Salvador there have been 15 recorded tsunamis between 1859 and 2012, 3 of them causing damages and hundreds of victims. The hazard assessment is commonly based...

On 4 May 1910, the most destructive earthquake in the history of Costa Rica (Ms 6.4) destroyed the city of Cartago, a major city located in the Valle Central of Costa Rica. Using both palaeo-seismological and morphotectonic analyses, we have found evidence that points to the Aguacaliente Fault (AF) as the source of this earthquake. This structure i...

In this work we analyze the tectonic setting of the recent damaging seismic series occurred in the Internal Zones of the eastern Betic Cordillera (SE Spain) and surrounding areas, the tectonic region where took place the 11th May 2011 Mw 5.2 Lorca earthquake. We revisit and make a synthesis of the seven largest and damaging seismic series occurred...

The early warning for nearfield (local) tsunamis with travel times of no more than about 30 minutes, from tsunami source to coastal zones, is a topic of great importance in the effort to reduce the loss of human lives and to mitigate tsunami risks. Historically, The NEAM region (NorthEast Atlantic and Mediterranean) is one of the most tsunami prone...

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. This paper presents a methodological framework for the integrated tsunami vulnerability and risk assessment. It deals with the complexity and variability of coastal zones by means of (i) an integral approach to...

Advances in the understanding and prediction of tsunami impacts allow the development of risk reduction strategies for tsunami-prone areas. This paper presents an integral framework for the formulation of tsunami evacuation plans based on tsunami vulnerability assessment and evacuation modelling. This methodology considers (i) the hazard aspects (t...

El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America; its coast has approximately a length of 320 km, 29 municipalities and more than 700 000 inhabitants. In El Salvador there have been 15 recorded tsunamis between 1859 and 2012, 3 of them causing damages and hundreds of victims. The hazard assessment is commonly based...

It is considered that the study of the recent topography development, and the use of geomorphological indexes are good tools for the quantification of the active tectonics. We have used quantitative geomorphology in order to improve our understanding of the recent activity and tectonic evolution of the El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ); an E-W oriented...

El 11 de mayo de 2011 ocurrió un terremoto de magnitud Mw 5,2 en el SE de la Cordillera Bética que produjo enormes daños en Lorca. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar un análisis e interpretación de la fuente geológica del terremoto de Lorca que explique su localización, magnitud y efectos superficiales generados. Se analizan las estructuras en...