News

Earthquakes without frontiers

(7 June 2012)

A new 5-year multidisciplinary research project is working to build resilience to earthquakes in areas of the Alpine-Himalayan belt, where some of the most deadly earthquakes have occurred in the last 120 years.

The Alpine-Himalayan belt stretches from Italy, Greece and Turkey, across the Middle East, Iran and central Asia, to China. Devastating earthquakes that have occurred in these areas in the past include the 2003 Bam Earthquake in Iran, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan that collectively killed at least 175,000 people. New international collaborations are needed between researchers, governments and local communities to create effective strategies to mitigate earthquake hazards on Alpine-Himalayan belt.

IHRR researchers from Durham University are teaming up with researchers from Cambridge, Hull, Leeds, Northumbria and Oxford universities, from the Overseas Development Institute, British Geological Survey, National Centre of Earth Observation as well as collaborators in China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran. Both physical and social scientists will work together in identifying the link between earthquake faults and the landscapes they've created using advanced ground- and space-based technologies to examine them in great detail and look for ways vulnerable communities who live in disaster-prone regions can become more resilient.

The £3.5 million study is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.

• Earthquakes without frontiers. University of Cambridge
• New research project: ‘Earthquakes without frontiers’. IHRR Blog