When catastrophic earthquakes happen and affect cities and settlements, immediate and efficient actions are required which ensure the minimization of the damage and loss of human lives. Responding local and national authorities should be provided in advance with information and maps where the highest damages due to unfavourable, local site conditions and earthquake related secondary effects suc...

Ultimately, seismotectonic studies seek to provide ways of assessing the timing, magnitude and spatial extent of future earthquakes. Ample observations document the spatial variability in interseismic coupling, defined as a degree of locking of a fault during the period of stress build-up between seismic events: fully or nearly locked fault patches are often surrounded by aseismically creeping ...