PROJECTS REDUCING EARTHQUAKE LOSSES IN
THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION (RELEMR)

Ø Background
Ø RELEMR programme
Ø Participating countries
Ø RELEMR meetings

Background
The Mediterranean region, because of its geological structure, seismicity, active tectonics, topography and climate, has been frequently subjected to natural disasters resulting in great losses of life and property. Field studies and investigations of disasters indicate that large portions of the land surface, population, infrastructure, and industry of the region have been subjected to earthquakes in the past or will be subjected to earthquakes in the future.

In the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), these earthquakes are associated with the northward movement of the Arabian plate. The 1,000 km long western boundary of the Arabian plate is a complex plate boundary, extending from zones of sea?floor spreading in the Red Sea to zones of plate convergence in Turkey, and lies along the line of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Dead Sea rift, and the Ghab depression. The sense of motion along the Dead Sea transform fault system is left lateral, with the eastern side moving northward relative to the western side. Total displacement is estimated at about 107 km since Oligocene time, with an annual rate of about 0.5 cm. over the last 7 to 10 million years.

On 22 November 1995, an Mw 7.2 earthquake occurred in the central Gulf of Aqaba region causing damage in nearby communities in Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia and was felt for more than 700 km. An aftershock sequence lasted for more than one year with numerous shocks exceeding Ms 5.0. The size of the main shock and some of the aftershocks demonstrates the threat that earthquakes pose to the EMR. These events occurred during RELEMR's (Reduction of Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region) second Joint Seismic Observing Period (JSOP?II) and therefore we had the ability to accurately locate the earthquake sequence by integrating data from all the national networks in the region. This permitted greatly improved accuracy in epicenter and magnitude determinations. In October 1997, a workshop was hosted by the Cyprus Geological Survey Department to locate the main shock and approximately ten aftershocks.

In the western Mediterranean region, which includes portions of Greece, Italy, Spain and northern Africa, seismicity is widely distributed and there are many seismic hazards. Modern interpretations of this seismicity suggest the existence of seven micro-plates, with seismic activity concentrated at the micro-plate boundaries, which coincide with the Alps, Appenines, and Hellenic arc. Among the most notable recent (1996) seismic events was the M 6.8 earthquake in the historic city of Assisi in the Italian Appenines which destroyed numerous cultural artifacts, including important frescoes.

RELEMR Programme
Based on the PAMERAR programme, UNESCO and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched in 1993 the Reducing Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (RELEMR) programme with the purpose of assessing, evaluating and reducing expected earthquake losses in this region. RELEMR is carried out with the European Mediterranean Seismic Centre (EMSC), it is associated with the Council of Europe through the Open Partial Agreement for Major Hazard and it is cooperating with EMR earth science organizations. Countries from the western Mediterranean region have also participated. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) has coordinated the exchange of data among EMR countries and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Observatories and Research Facilities of European Seismology (ORFEUS) have also been cooperating in the program.

Future losses from earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region could be substantially reduced through the integrated implementation of:

• Seismotectonic framework studies using geological, geophysical, geodetic, seismological, archaeological and historical techniques to improve understanding of the cause and nature of the seismicity.


• Earthquake monitoring using modern seismograph networks and strong-motion instrument arrays to determine earthquake parameters and characteristics.


• Assessment of earthquake hazards to estimate locations, recurrence intervals, and effects of future earthquakes.


• Assessment of risks to evaluate potential losses.


• Implementation of earthquake risk reduction measures to reduce vulnerabilities and losses.
  
  

Participating countries
Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Yemen are involved in RELEMR activities.

RELEMR Meetings
The goals of RELEMR workshops are to foster data exchange among countries in the region, to conduct joint activities and experiments that would improve the quality of seismic data, to improve hazard assessments in the Mediterranean region, to improve the dissemination of earthquake engineering data, and ultimately to improve the seismic provisions of building codes in the region.

1. Seismicity and Earthquake Engineering in the Extended Mediterranean Region, Chania, Crete, Greece, 11-17 September 2005
2. 
   Workshop on Seismicity and Seismic Hazard Assessment in the Mediterranean Region, Ankara, Turkey, 26-29 January 2005
3. 
   Workshop on 'Site Response and Building Response' in Aqaba, Jordan, 18-28 January 2004
4. 
   International Workshop on 'Seismic Hazard Analysis and Data Exchange in the Mediterranean Region', Nicosia , Cyprus, 10-13 September 2003
5. 
   International Workshop on 'Seismic Analysis and Earthquake Hazard Assessment in the Mediterranean Region' Antakya, Turkey, 11-14 December 2002
6. 
   Program For Increasing Technical Capacity on Natural Disaster Reduction in the Mediterranean Region, UNESCO headquarters, Paris, France, 24-25 June 2002
7. 
   Workshop on Seismic Analysis and Earthquake Hazard Assessment in the Mediterranean Region, Larnaca, Cyprus, 19-22 March 2002
8. 
   Earthquake Hazard Assessment Practice and Velocity Models and Reference Events in the Mediterranean Region, one-day seminar on Earthquake Hazard Assessment Practice and Development of Probabilistic Hazard Maps in the Mediterranean Region. Santa Susanna, Spain, 20-25 May 2001
9. 
   Workshop on Lessons learned from Large earthquakes in the Mediterranean |Region; Training course on the use of ground shaking software, Istanbul, Turkey, 22-27 October 2000
10. 
    Intensive training course on seismic data analysis and Workshop on Seismic Calibration in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Istanbul, Turkey, 21 May-1 June 2000
11. 
    Workshop on Seismic Hazards in the Mediterranean Region and the Operation of CTBT Auxiliary Seismic Stations, Nicosia, Cyprus, 3-7 May 1999
12. 
    Planning Workshop on Magnitude Calibration and GSHAP Seismic Hazard Map and Workshop on Seismic Hazards and magnitude calibration in the Easter Mediterranean Region, Istanbul, Turkey, 14-17 October 1998
13. 
    Regional Workshop on Magnitude Calibration in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Amman, Jordan, 4-7 May 1998
14. 
    International Workshop on Active Faults and Seismicity of the Gulf of Aqaba, Nicosia, Cyprus, 26-31 October 1997
15. 
    Workshop on Seismic Monitoring in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Joint Seismic Observing Period - II, Nicosia, Cyprus, 8-11 December 1996
16. 
    Second Regional Workshop on the Seismicity of the Gulf of Aqaba Region, Amman, Jordan, 3-5 June 1996
17. 
    Training Course on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering , Advanced Procedures for Hazard and Risk Assessments, Istanbul, Turkey, 2 weeks, November 1995
18. 
    Workshop on Seismic Monitoring in the Eastern Mediterranean Region - Meeting on the Joint Observation Period - I , Nicosia, Cyprus, 15-19 May 1995
19. 
    Executive briefing on the Programme for Reduction of Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Paris, France, 10-11 May 1995
20. 
    Workshop on seismic network data exchange and post-earthquake investigations, Nicosia, Cyprus, 25-28 April 1994
21. 
    Workshop on Earthquake Hazards in the Gulf of Aqaba Region, Taba, Egypt, 17-20 April 1994
22. 
    Seminar on Earthquakes Hazards of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Cairo, Egypt, 16-21 October 1993

Next meeting
The next meeting will tentatively be held in Malta, in April 2006.