Middle East seismic hazard to be assessed

Published: Feb. 6, 2008 at 2:23 PM

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli seismologists have formed a cross-border partnership to research earthquake activity in the Middle East.

Tel Aviv University seismologist Hillel Wust-Bloch created the earthquake mapping research partnership to explore seismic activity around the ancient city of Jericho -- one of the world's most vulnerable areas for quakes and a region important to Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis.

The four-year project will mark the first time that Earth scientists from those three regions have worked together directly, Wust-Bloch said. In the past, partnerships have usually occurred through a third party, such as the United Nations.

The project, which includes scientists from Al-Balqa University in Jordan, and An Najah University in Nablus, will be led by Tel Aviv University and involves deploying six nano-scale "seismic microscopes" in the Jericho region, in order to map a 39-square-mile (100-square-kilometer) area.

"From a scientific point of view, this project is innovative because we are monitoring the seismic activity of a region which is well-known, but we are doing it at much lower thresholds," said Wust-Bloch.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Song's win lifts her to No. 29 in world (28 min)
Dodgers' coaching staff to return in 2010 (43 min)
Natural historians use social network (45 min)
Safin wins opening match in his last event (58 min)
Fed: Banks have raised needed capital
Elson to be replaced at Western Kentucky
Prostate biopsy not always necessary
fark
The federal government is willing to pay up to $66,542 plus living benefits if you don't mind mushing...
"The bullet zipped over fields and pasture from the south as Long's car traveled west from her aunt's...
Sometimes there are signs that you've chosen the wrong profession. Bus driver, on his first day...
Strollers recalled due to C) amputation
Tips on how to raise a vegetarian child so that he grows up to be healthy, happy and insufferably...
Fark / Mentally Incontinent joint book signing, Thursday Nov. 12 at the Borders Books Stonestown...