_{Fig. 1 Left: Overview of the study area with historic (stars; Schwarz et al. 2019) and recent earthquakes (circles; Bulletin-Files des Landeserdbebendienstes B-W, 2011-2020) in the Swabian Jura. Black lines indicate faults (Regierungspräsidium Freiburg: Landesamt für Geologie, Rohstoffe und Bergbau (Hrsg.), 2019).
Right: Overview map of Germany. The black rectangle indicates the location of the study area (ASZ = Albstadt Shear Zone).
The topography is based on SRTM15+ (Tozer et al. 2019).}

Seismicity in the Swabian Jura near Albstadt

The region surrounding the town of Albstadt in the Swabian Jura, south of Stuttgart, is one of the few areas in Germany with a high seismic hazard. In the Swabian Jura continuous seismic activity is observed, including damaging earthquakes with a local magnitude ML >= 5.

The earthquakes occur predominantly along the Albstadt Shear Zone – a north-south striking, vertically dipping, sinistral strike-slip fault. The fault is not visible at the surface because the movement within the crystalline basement is decoupled from the overlying sedimentary rock by a detachment horizon. Consequently, it is difficult to determine the extent and structure of the Albstadt Shear Zone.

Here at the GPI, we investigate the source mechanisms of earthquakes in the Swabian Jura and the related stress field. In addition, we use the continuous seismicity to map the active fault planes and thereby gain insight into the structure of the active faults in the Swabian Jura. These investigations started within the Stress Transfer project - Stress transfer and quaternary faulting in the northern Alpine foreland (https://www.gpi.kit.edu/329_542.php).