A RACE WITH TIME IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION

摘要

The August 17, 1999 Izmit, Turkey earthquake disaster demonstrated the need for accelerating regional programs such as, "Reduction of Earthquake Losses in the Eastern Mediterranean Region" (RELEMR), in order to win the race with time. RELEMR has been sustained since 1993 under the coordination of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Technical assistance has been provided by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) and, since 1996, by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The goal of RELEMR is to promote collaboration between all EMR countries, earth science organizations, seismic network operators, urban planners, engineers as they work together to improve the capacity to create and enforce modern building codes based on modern ground shaking hazard maps in the race with time to achieve sustainable development in a geographic region facing future earthquake disasters. Initially, the program focused on the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) comprised of Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, but it has been extended to include the Palestinian Authority and now the entire Mediterranean region, involving France, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Italy, and Spain. Because of the geological setting and regional tectonics, the Mediterranean region has been subjected to many damaging earthquakes, with great loss of life and property. In the EMR, earthquakes are associated mainly with the northward movement of the Arabian plate and its collision with the Eurasian plate; in the WMR, with the collision of the African and Eurasian plate. The seismicity, geologic field studies, and post-earthquake studies, in the region all indicate that the EMR and the WMR will again experience damaging earthquakes.