The November 26, 2019 M w 6.4 Durres, Albania Earthquake: Regional Seismicity, Regional Geodynamics and Seismic Hazard. March 28-29,
2023, Hotel Tirana International Hotel & Conference Centre, Tirana, Albania

Tour of earthquake damaged areas and historical sites in Central Albania and Ionian-Adriatic coast. March 30-31

Scope and Objectives
On November 26, 2019 a Mw 6.4 earthquake struck the port town of Durrës located on the western coast of Albania. The earthquake was the strongest in Albania for the last five decades, and world’s deadliest for the year 2019, killing 51 people and causing significant damage to buildings. The symposium will give an overview of the regional tectonics, geodynamics, seismicity, seismic hazard, strong motion in Albania, Southwestern Balkan countries and Eastern Mediterranean region. In addition, the workshop will discuss state of the art techniques applied to seismic hazard assessment and physics-based earthquake ground motion prediction.

The symposium is intended to bring together specialists from different disciplines and foster international cooperation among researchers who are interested in the seismic hazard assessment techniques, earthquake processes, including rupture modeling, wave propagation and ground motion modeling. It also aims at strengthening the Albanian earthquake research infrastructure, and identifying needs for improved earthquake monitoring and seismic hazard assessment.

Main Topics and Aspects
– Overview of the 2019 M w 6.4 Durres earthquake, including observed damage, strong ground motion, foreshock and aftershocks activity patterns, microzonation of urban areas
– Tectonics, role of deep-sited active faults, and underground structure
– Regional geodynamics, co-seismic and post-seismic deformation
– Seismic hazard in Albania and Mediterranean regions
– Numerical methods for earthquake rupture and seismic wave propagation modeling in complex media
– Earthquake ground motion prediction with engineering applications

Sessions

1. The 2019, Mw6.4 Durres Earthquake
Topics:

  • regional tectonics
  • seismicity, and seismic hazard analysis
  • local and regional seismic monitoring
  • seismic observations during the mainshock and aftershock sequences including co-seismic and post-seismic deformation
  • observed and simulated ground motion in Durres and Tirana regions

2. Physics-based Ground Motion Simulation with Engineering Applications
Topics:

  • methods for modeling source, path and site-effects in ground motion simulations
  • seismic hazard analysis and uncertainty estimates

3. Tour of earthquake damaged areas and historical sites in Central Albania and Ionian-Adriatic coast, including Vlora city
(Bus tour scheduled for March 30-31)