This book examines historical evidence from the last 2000 years to analyse earthquakes in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Early chapters review techniques of historical seismology, while the main body of the book comprises a catalogue of more than 4000 earthquakes identified from historical sources. Each event is supported by textual evidence extracted from primary sources and translated into English. Covering southern Rumania, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, the book documents past seismic events, places them in a broad tectonic framework, and provides essential information for those attempting to prepare for, and mitigate the effects of, future earthquakes and tsunamis in these countries. This volume is an indispensable reference for researchers studying the seismic history of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, including archaeologists, historians, earth scientists, engineers and earthquake hazard analysts. A parametric catalogue of these seismic events can be downloaded from www.cambridge.org/9780521872928.

In this thesis, I present the most important research works I conducted on the seismicity catalogs, strong ground motion databases and seismic hazard analysis of Iran and other active zones in the Middle East and south Asia. An emphasis in this thesis is to represent the important controlling factors for the seismic source determinations, seismicity parameters and ground motion models. After each earthquake (such as the 1990, Manjil earthquake; Mw=7.3, and 2003, Bam earthquake; Mw=6.5) there are some discussions on the reliability of the seismic hazard zoning maps and a comparison between the recorded and previously assessed ground motions. This draws attention to the importance of input dataset and the level of knowledge of the seismic source parameters in the potential seismic regions (geometry and mechanical of faults, return periods, etc...). The thesis is organized in 8 chapters that present a summary of my research works and published papers on the subjects including seismicity catalogues, strong motion processing, development of attenuation relationships and seismic hazard analysis. In addition, a summary of reconnaissance studies of some important and destructive earthquakes (since 2003) and lessons learned from them, as well as my research formation in terms of supervision of Ph.D. thesis are described. Furthermore, a new research on seismicity and strong motion databank of the south Asia is proposed in this manuscript.

A careful and intensive study of historical sources and a review of the instrumental data of this century have led to this detailed catalogue of earthquakes. Egypt, Arabia, the Red Sea region and the surrounding areas of Libya, Sudan and Ethiopia are studied from the earliest times to the present day. Each earthquake is described as fully as possible from the available data, and is analysed in a geographical and historical context. The completeness of the earthquake catalogue over time is analysed and the range of sources and problems associated with the scrutiny of historical sources is discussed. The information is then placed in a geophysical framework.

A unique interdisciplinary approach to disaster risk research, including global hazards and case-studies, for researchers, graduate students and professionals.

Neotectonics involves the study of the motions and deformations of the Earth's crust that are current or recent in geologic time. The Mediterranean region is one of the most important regions for neotectonics and related natural hazards. This volume focuses on the neotectonics of the Eastern Mediterranean region, which has experienced many major extensive earthquakes, including the devastating Izmit, Turkey earthquake on August 17, 1999. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people, injuring 44,000 people, and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. Since then, several North American, European, and Turkish research groups have studied the neotectonics and earthquake potential of the region using different geological and geophysical methods, including GPS studies, geodesy, and passive source seismology. Some results from their studies were presented in major North American and European geological meetings. This volume highlights the work involving the Eastern Mediterranean region, which has one of the world's longest and best studied active strike-slip (horizontal motion) faults: the east-west trending North Anatolian fault zone, which is very similar to the San Andreas fault in California. This volume features discussions of: Widespread applications in measuring plate motion that have strong implications in predicting natural disasters like earthquakes, both on a regional and a global scale Recent motions, particularly those produced by earthquakes, that provide insights on the physics of earthquake recurrence, the growth of mountains, orogenic movements, and seismic hazards Unique methodical approaches in collecting tectonophysical data, including field, seismic, experimental, computer-based, and theoretical approaches. Active Global Seismology is a valuable resource for geoscientists, particularly in the field of tectonophysics, geophysics, geodynamics, seismology, structural geology, environmental geology, and geoengineering. Read an interview with the editors to find out more: https://eos.org/editors-vox/neotectonics-and-earthquake-forecasting