Seismic refraction experiments between Iceland and Scotland

Two reversed seismic refraction profiles, 90 and 120 km in length, located between Iceland and Faeroes, show that the crust of the Iceland-Faeroe Rise is neither typically oceanic nor typically continental. It is of the order of 18 km thick and shows layering similar to that observed on Iceland. Offsets in the travel-time graphs are identified with marked topographic variations in the upper boundary of layer 2.A third profile on the lower flank of the Iceland-Faeroe Rise, to the south-west, shows that the crust thins in this direction. Seismic refraction profiles over and adjacent to a previously located sedimentary basin on the continental shelf west of the Shetland islands, confirm the probable existence of a 3 km thick sequence of Mesozoic-Tertiary strata, and establish that there is a similar thickness of higher velocity, possibly Palaeozoic, rock between this and the met amorphic basement. Seismic refraction and reflection data and gravity and magnetic field measurements obtained from a region close to the south-west coasts of the Shetlands, confirm and locate the southerly extension of the Walls boundary fault. A sedimentary basin is outlined which is 1 to 1.5 km deep and probably of Mesozoic-Tertiary age. In addition, it is concluded that rocks similar to the granite and Walls sandstone of the Walls Peninsular underlie the sedimentary basin and that there is a trough of Old Red Sandstone rocks to the east of Sumburgh Head, south Shetlands

Frontiers of seismology

The British Seismology Meeting 2019 took place at the University of Edinburgh over three days, 4–6 September. The first British Seismology Meeting, BSM2017, was held in Reading in April 2017 (Lieser et al.2018); there had been earlier seismology meetings in the UK, but no wide-ranging cross-disciplinary meetings since Frontiers of Seismology in Edinburgh 2009 (Sargeant et al.2009). In his welcoming address at BSM2017, Dmitry Stor-chak expressed a wish that it would be the first in a series of such meetings, which he thought should become a regular event, perhaps every two years. At the end of the BSM2017 meeting, Anton Ziolkowski offered the University of Edinburgh as a potential venue for BSM2019.BSM2019: Frontiers of Seismology attracted about 70 scientists from the UK and abroad, to present and discuss seismological research, establish new contacts and strengthen existing links. A feature of the meeting was that all posters were available in a large space adjacent to the lecture theatre for viewing, presentation and discussion for the whole period, including coffee breaks, lunch and evening drinks. Feedback from the meeting was very positive. This article presents a brief summary of each session

GEMS: the opportunity for stress-forecasting all damaging earthquakes worldwide

A new understanding of rock deformation allows the accumulation of stress before earthquakes to be monitored by using shear-wave splitting to assess stress-induced changes to microcrack geometry. Using swarms of small earthquakes as the source of shear-waves, such stress accumulations have been recognised with hindsight before some fifteen earthquakes worldwide. On one occasion the time, magnitude, and fault-break of an M 5 earthquake was successfully stress-forecast in a comparatively narrow magnitude/time window. However, suitable swarms of small earthquakes are very uncommon, and routine forecasting requires measurements of controlled-source observations at bore-hole Stress-Monitoring Sites (SMSs). A prototype SMS confirmed that both science and technology are effective for monitoring stress changes before earthquakes, and the sensitivity is such that a network of SMSs, on a 400 km-grid, say, could stress-forecast all M ≥ 5 earthquakes, that is all damaging earthquakes, within the grid. This paper suggests that a Global Earthquake Monitoring System (GEMS) could forecast all damaging earthquakes in both developing and developed countries worldwide

Sustainable Chemical Supply and Logistics Chains: The Path forward

Today, supply chain managers across the global chemical industry, while operating in a very difficult economic environment, need to respond to important sustainability challenges in the supply chain. Chemical production is shifting faster than expected from Europe to Asia, while shale gas is attracting new investments in North America

GEMS: the opportunity for stress-forecasting all damaging earthquakes worldwide

Please note that the figures are intended to be published in black and write (with no colour). It is particularly appropriate to publish this paper to Annals of Geophysics as the second Stress-Monitoring Site is scheduled to begin operation in SE Sicily as part of the SICIS Project.A new understanding of rock deformation allows the accumulation of stress before earthquakes to be monitored by using shear-wave splitting to assess stress-induced changes to microcrack geometry. Using swarms of small earthquakes as the source of shear-waves, such stress accumulations have been recognised with hindsight before some fifteen earthquakes worldwide. On one occasion the time, magnitude, and fault-break of an M 5 earthquake was successfully stress-forecast in a comparatively narrow magnitude/time window. However, suitable swarms of small earthquakes are very uncommon, and routine forecasting requires measurements of controlled-source observations at bore-hole Stress-Monitoring Sites (SMSs). A prototype SMS confirmed that both science and technology are effective for monitoring stress changes before earthquakes, and the sensitivity is such that a network of SMSs, on a 400 km-grid, say, could stress-forecast all M ≥ 5 earthquakes, that is all damaging earthquakes, within the grid. This paper suggests that a Global Earthquake Monitoring System (GEMS) could forecast all damaging earthquakes in both developing and developed countries worldwide.Submittedreserve