OGS participates in the French FABLES survey for assessing seismic hazards along the Côte d’Azur.

OGS has taken part in an oceanographic campaign offshore Nice, on the French-Italian continental margin to study seabed activity and assess seismic hazard. OGS researcher Silvia Ceramicola and Nicola Corradi (University of Genoa) joined the French researchers  led by Sébastien Migeon (Geoazur, Nice) aboard the vessel Tethys II for the FABLES campaign (Failles Actives du Bassin Ligure), from 31 august to 5 September 2013.

The objective of the survey is to image the sub-seafloor in between the canyon headwalls with a seismic tool (150-250 Hz frequency sparker) able to image  active faulting and folding in the sub-seafloor. The campaign is part of a wider French national project aimed at identifying the sources of seismic hazard on the French and Italian Riviera.

This is a highly populated coastal area known to be affected by seismicity and recurrent mass wasting processes (e.g. failure adjacent to Nice airport). Seismicity on this ‘passive’ margin is related to recent reactivation by Alpine compression. Establishing a link with potential sources (i.e. active faulting offsetting the seabed) will enable the building of  realistic scenarios to assess seismic hazard and tsunamigenic potential for this coastal area.