The research area focuses on geological/geophysical natural hazards and associated risks. It aims at methodologies to quantify hazards and risks and to develop early warning systems. Probabilistic and deterministic methods are employed to characterize earthquake hazards and risks for buildings and infrastructure systems. In addition to large earthquakes posing threats to cities such as Istanbul we work on the seismicity related (induced or triggered) to subsurface activity such as mining, geothermal energy development, and CO2 sequestration.
Research is organized in the frame of the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology CEDIM and the KIT- Center for Climate and Environment.
Area of Research
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Natural Hazards and Risks (Head)
Main Research
- Development of methodologies for hazard and risk assessment for areas but also specific sites
- Development of seismic early warning systems
- Methodologies for risk management in large urban agglomerations
- Coordinator of the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM)
Projects
Earthquake Hazards
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Seismic Hzard and Risk for Spatially Distributed Systems
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3D Effects of Seismic Ground Motion in the Taipei Basin and Implications for Hazard and Risk (DFG)
Computer Modelling of Elastic Wave Progagation
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3D Effects of Seismic Ground Motion in the Taipei Basin and Implications for Hazard and Risk (DFG)
Earthquake Source Physics
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Dr. Rebecca Harrington Alexander-von-Humboldt-Fellowship and Young Investigator Group (YIG)
Vulnerability and Loss related to Earthquakes
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SYNER-G, Course Development in Risk Identification, Assessment and Analysis for WBI Natural Disaster Management Learning Program (World Bank)
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Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI)
Early Warning for Earthquakes
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Earthquake Disaster Information System for the Marmara-Region: Real-time information from a regional accelerometer network (EDIM)
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Early Warning System for Transport Lines (EWS-Transport)
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Seismic eArly warning For EuoRope - SAFER (completed) (all BMBF)
Courses
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Introduction to Geophysics I
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Introduction to Geophysics II
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Theory of Wave-Propagation
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Physics of the Earth
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Engineer-Seismology
Publications
Oth, A., Parolai, St., Bindi, D. & F. Wenzel: Source spectra and site response from S waves of intermediate-depth Vrancea, Romania, earthquakes. BSSA, 99, 1, 235-254, 2009.
Böse, M., Sokolov, V. & F. Wenzel: Shake Map methodology for intermediate depth Vrancea (Romania) earthquakes. Earthquake Spectra, 25, 3, 497-514, 2009.
Barth, A. & F. Wenzel: New constraints on the intraplate stress field of the Amurian plate deduced from light earthquake focal mechanisms, Tectonophysics, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2009.01.029, 2009.
Köhler, N., Cua, G., Wenzel, F, and M. Böse: Rapid source parameter estimations of southern California earthquakes using PreSEIS. Seismological Research Letters, DOI 10.1785/gssrl.80.5.743, 2009.
Böse, M., Wenzel, F. & M. Erdik: PreSEIS: A neural network-base approach to earthquake early warning for finite faults. BSSA, 98, 1, 366-382, 2008.
Sokolov, V.Y., Wenzel, F. & R. Mohindra: Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for Romania and sensitivity analysis: A case of joint consideration of intermediate-depth (Vrancea) and shallow (crustal) seismicity. Soild Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, doi: 10.1016/j.soildyn.2008.04.004, 2008.
Böse. M., Ionescu, C. & F. Wenzel: Earthquake early warning for Bucharest, Romania: Novel and revised scaling relations. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, Doi: 10.1029/2007GL02396, 2007.
Wenzel, F. & G. Marmureanu: Rapid earthquake information for Bucharest. Pure & Applied Geophysics, doi.org/10.1007/s00024-007-0198-3, 2007.
Weidle, C., Wenzel, F. & A. Ismail-Zadeh: t*- an unsuitable parameter to characterize anelastic attenuation in the Eastern Carpathians. GJI, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2007-03441.x, 2007.
Oth, A., Wenzel, F. & M. Radulian: Source parameters of intermediate-depth Vrancea (Romania) earthquakes from empirical Green's functions modeling. Tectonophysics, 438, 33-56, 2007.
Barth, A., Wenzel, F. & D. Giardini: Frequency sensitive moment tensor inversion for light to moderate magnitude earthquakes in eastern Africa. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, LI5302, Doi: 1029/20007GL030359, 2007.
Wenzel, F., Bendimerad, F. & R. Sinha: Megacities – megarisks. Nat. Hazards, 42, 481-491, 2007.
Bartlakowski, J., Wenzel, F. Radulian, M., Ritter, J. and W. Wirth: Urban shakemap methodology for Bucharest. GRL, vol. 33, L14310, Doi: 10.1029/2006GL026283, 2006.
Miksat, J., Wenzel, F., and V. Sokolov: Low Free-Field Accelerations of the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake? Pure and Applied Geophysics, 162, 857-874, 2005.
Sokolov V. Yu, K.-P. Bonjer and F. Wenzel.: Accounting for site effect in probabilistic assessment of seismic hazard for Romania and Bucharest: a case of deep seismicity in Vrancea zone. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering , 24 (12), 927-947, 2004.
Wirth, W., Wenzel, F., Sokolov, V.Yu. & P.K. Bonjer: A uniform approach to urban seismic site effect analysis, Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 23, 8, 737-758, 2003.
