From the March 2018 Desktop News |Dr. Ibrahim Çemen, a UA professor of geology, recently published a book, Neotectonics and Earthquake Potential of the Eastern Mediterranean Region, detailing his research on earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Çemen, who specializes in structural and earthquake geology, said that the book grew out of a research symposium organized as part of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting in San Francisco in 2013. Because of the high interest in the symposium, Dr. Çemen and his co-organizer were asked to publish the book.

“Wiley Publishing Company and the AGU asked us to put together the papers presented in the symposium in the form of a book because of the high interest in the symposium,” Çemen said. “It took us three years, but we completed it.”

The book, part of Wiley and AGU’s “Active Global Seismology” joint series, details the earthquake potential the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

“This book is all about the earthquake potential of the Eastern Mediterranean Region where large earthquakes have occurred in the past and very likely will occur in the future,” Çemen said. “The region has fault lines similar to California, Northwestern U.S. and British Columbia, Canada—the regions in North America where large earthquakes are likely to occur.”

Çemen hopes that the book will help to advance research in earthquake prediction.

“We’re well-behind in predicting earthquakes,” Çemen said. “We don’t know when this will be a reality—maybe in 30, 40, 50 years, or even longer.  But, I believe it will happen. We do not know what is happening in the subsurface in the days leading up to an earthquake. There are indications that something is happening, but we do not have the technology to discover what it is. Therefore, we do not know precursors to earthquakes. Not yet.”