Editorial: Submarine Active Faults: From Regional Observations to Seismic Hazard Characterization

Since the beginning of the XXI Century, our society has witnessed a number of catastrophic earthquakes with devastating consequences (e.g., Sumatra 2004, Haiti 2010, Japan 2010, Nepal 2015, Italy 2009 and 2016). Localizing the active faults and understanding their earthquake history is key to improve modern probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) and, thus, to mitigate the consequences of future events. Seismicity models to characterize the earthquake frequency in a region in PSHA studies have been traditionally based on archaeological, historical and instrumental earthquake records. However, the rapid advance of active tectonics and paleoseismological studies has resulted in the development of seismicity models for faults, since they allow characterizing the active faults, reconstructing their 3D geometry at depth, and determining their past earthquake history and seismic potential based on the interpretation of the geological record.