Earthquakes and Coseismic Surface Faulting on the Iranian Plateau

Manuel Berberian was born on October 27, 1945 into an immigrant Armenian ethnic-religious minority in Tehran. He received a BSc degree in geology from the University of Tehran in 1968, and a PhD degree in earthquake seismology and active tectonics from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom in June 1981. He was the first Armenian and the second Iranian earth scientist ever to be accepted at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is Emeritus Professor of Geosciences at the Tehran and Tarbiat Modarres Universities, and at present teaches at the Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ, USA. He is a certified professional geologist in the USA and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and American Geophysical Union. He is a leading international earthquake expert on the Iranian Plateau and the Middle East. With his wife and son he immigrated to the USA in 1990.

He is a world renowned research scientist on seismotectonics, earthquake seismology, historical earthquakes, archaeoseismicity, palaeo- and active-tectonics, geology, and geologic hazards of the Iranian plateau, with 43 years of academic and research experience. He pioneered the study of plate tectonics and seismotectonics in Iran and was the founder of the ‘Tectonics and Seismotectonics Research Department’ of the Geological Survey of Iran in Tehran in 1971; the first research center established in this field in the Middle East. He has been a pioneer in the application of plate tectonics to Iranian geology and seismology, and has been responsible for much of what is known about the geology, tectonics, seismotectonics, archaeoseismicity, active faulting/folding, and seismicity of the Iranian Plateau, as well as human aspects of earthquakes, earthquake-fault hazard and risk assessment, and history and mythology of the ancient Iranian-Armenian ancient civilizations.

He has authored more than 300 reports and books; out of which about 110 research studies were published as peer reviewed papers in Europe and the USA, and 10 books in English and Persian; and has prepared over 193 technical reports for seismic hazard and risk assessments of major projects such as nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, refineries, lifelines, and large urban developments. He began studying archaeology and the ancient history of Iran to use the rich archaeological and historical records to expand the knowledge of Iranian seismicity, active faulting, and their hazards and risks to the society. Lately he entered the domain of environmental science and engineering in the States.