Keeping track of earthquakes

The quake in Japan released one million times more energy than the strongest earthquakes known from the Inn valley. Medieval earthquakes have caused remarkable damage in the Inn valley though. A research group at the Institute for Geology and Palaeontology under supervision of Prof. Rainer Brandner investigates geological reasons, in cooperation with the Seismological Survey of Austria. Photo: Section through the Alps across the Inn valley. The earthquake at Schwaz on 19 October 2010 occurred in the European plate, which is located below 8 km depth. Most earthquakes are generated by the brittle deformation of rocks in the upper crust of the earth. Active plate tectonic processes move crustal segments slowly against each other.