Students follow the HIPER oceanographic expedition

Over the next few weeks the Geology department will be working with The Laboratoire Géoazur Education Unit allowing our students  to follow an oceanographic mission which will take place very soon off the coast of Ecuador. On board, engineers and earth science researchers from Germany, France and Ecuador will share their expedition live with the students. 

Subject lead for Geology, Mr Gordon Neighbour said that "Ecuador is subject to the occurrence of mega-earthquakes along the subduction zone. In 1906, an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck Ecuador, the 7th largest earthquake ever recorded by seismometers, associated with a devastating tsunami. Since then, this earthquake has been followed by several earthquakes of magnitude greater than 7. In April 2016, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck again, causing hundreds of victims and damaging several significant pieces of infrastructure. We are so lucky that through our partnership with the Université Côte d'Azur that we are able to show our students the area around Ecuador, which is a natural laboratory for the study of these large earthquakes. In recent years, studies have shown that various types of landslides have been recorded there, including slow earthquakes and swarms of earthquakes in the shallow part of the fault."