The journal Comptes-Rendus Géoscience of the French Academy of Sciences published on August 5, 2021 a synthesis article on the seismotectonics of South-East France (from the Jura to Corsica).

The South-East of France presents the highest rate of instrumental seismicity as well as the strongest historical earthquakes known on the metropolitan territory. We present the evolution of active seismological networks in this region since 1962 until the implementation of RESIF. The analysis of the instrumental seismicity is detailed over the period 1996-2019, first from a global point of view on the whole South-East and then by geological domain: Jura-Bresse graben, South-East basin-Provence, Western Alps, Ligurian Sea-Corsica. The historical seismicity is analyzed jointly. A particular effort is made to discuss the distribution and the focal mechanisms of the earthquakes in relation to the geology of the different domains and the identified faults.

Several specific points are analyzed in more detail: (i) the identification of active faults by microseismicity (Belledonne border fault, Blausasc fault), (ii) the Epagny earthquake (1996/07/15, ML 5.3) and the Vuache fault, (iii) the Middle Durance fault and its seismogenic potential, (iv) the very shallow focal depths (< 1 km) of some events in the lower Rhone valley, and finally (v) the diversity of seismogenic processes.

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Reference : Christophe Larroque; Stéphane Baize; Julie Albaric; Hervé Jomard; Jenny Trévisan; Maxime Godano; Marc Cushing; Anne Deschamps; Christian Sue; Bertrand Delouis; Bertrand Potin; Françoise Courboulex; Marc Régnier; Diane Rivet. Seismotectonics of southeast France: from the Jura mountains to Corsica. Comptes Rendus. Géoscience (2021), pp. 1-47. doi : 10.5802/crgeos.69.

Carte de la sismicité du sud-est de la France de 1996 à 2019

Seismicity map from the CEA_1996–2019 catalog supplemented by earthquakes of ML ≥ 4.5 or Mw ≥ 4.0 from the CEA and the Si-Hex catalogs for the period 1963–1996. 1, 2: Briançonnais and Piemontais seismicity arcs respectively; 3, 4, 5: Rhône, Belledonne and Durance seismic alignments respectively; 6: Vallorcine cluster; 7: Maurienne cluster; 8: Ubaye cluster; 9: Epicenter of the Le Teil earthquake (Mw 4.9, 2019/11/11). © C. Larroque et al.