University of Potsdam, Professor of Geophysics (C4), Chair of Geophysics

Current research interest:

• Quantification of earthquake hazard in regions of low seismicity
• Ambient vibrations and their use for quantitative structural imaging using array techniques
• Local site effects
• Digital signal processing of array data

Courses:

• Fundamentals of Geophysics
• Introductory Seismology
• Digital Seismology
• Earthquake Hazard assessment and engineering seismology
• Array Seismology
• Inverse Theory

Reviewed international publications 2001 – 2008

Tuan, T.T., Malischewsky, P.G., Scherbaum F., Ohrnberger, M. (2008). Dispersion of zero-frequency Rayleigh waves in an isotropic model "Layer over half-space", Geophysical Journal International, in press.

Cotton, F., G. Pousse, F. Bonilla, and F. Scherbaum (2008). On the discrepancy of recent European ground-motion observations and predictions from empirical models, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, in press. (PDF)

Bommer, J. J. , and F. Scherbaum (2008). The use and misuse of logic-trees in PSHA, Earthquake Spectra, in press . (PDF)

Kuehn, N., S. Hainzl, and F. Scherbaum (2008). Non-Poissonian earthquake occurrence in coupled stress release models and its effect on seismic hazard, Geophysical Journal International, in press, 1-40. (PDF)

Faenza, L., S. Hainzl, and F. Scherbaum (2008). Statistical analysis of the Central-Europe Seismicity, 1-28. Geophysical Journal International, in press. (PDF)

2007

Kulesh, M., M. S. Diallo, M. Holschneider, K. Kurennaya, F. Krüger, M. Ohrnberger, and F. Scherbaum (2007). Polarization analysis in the wavelet domain based on the adaptive covariance method, Geophysical Journal International, 170(2), 667-678. (PDF)

Faenza, L., S. Hainzl, and F. Scherbaum (2007). Statistical analysis of time-dependent earthquake occurrence and its impact on hazard in the low seismicity region Lower Rhine Embayment, Geophysical Journal International,171 (2),797-806. (PDF)

Hintersberger, E., F. Scherbaum, and S. Hainzl (2007). Update of likelihood-based ground-motion selection for seismic hazard analysis in Western Central Europe., Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 5(1-16). (PDF)

Köhler, A., M. Ohrnberger, F. Scherbaum, M. Wathelet, and C. Cornou (2007). Assessing the reliability of the modified three-component spatial autocorrelation technique, Geophysical Journal International, 168, 779-796. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F. (2007). Of poles and zeros. Fundamentals of digital seismology, 2^nd revised edition, Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 268 pages. 

Riggelsen, C., M. Ohrnberger, and F. Scherbaum. (2007). Dynamic Bayesian networks for real-time classification of seismic signals.  PKDD 2007, LNAI 4702, Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 565-572. (PDF)

Mollova, G. S. , and F. Scherbaum (2007). Influence of parameters selection in Chebyshev filters on the strong motion data processing, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering,5, 609-627. (PDF)

Drouet, S., F. Scherbaum, F. Cotton, and A. Souriau (2007). Selection and ranking of ground motion models for seismic hazard analysis in the Pyrenees, Journal of Seismology, 11(1), 87-100. (PDF)

Reuther, C.-D., N. Buurman, D. Kühn, M. Ohrnberger, T. Dahm, and F. Scherbaum (2007). Hamburg - A dynamic underground - Technologies for an underground survey in the metropolitan region of Hamburg [Erkundung des unterirdischen Raums der Metropolregion Hamburg - Das Projekt HADU (Hamburg - A Dynamic Underground)], Geotechnik, 30(1), 11-20.

2006

Beauval, C., S. Hainzl, and F. Scherbaum (2006). Probabilistic seismic hazard estimation in low-seismicity regions considering non-Poissonian seismic occurrence, Geophysical Journal International, 164(doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.02863.x), 543-550. (PDF)

Cotton, F., F. Scherbaum, J. J. Bommer, and H. Bungum (2006). Criteria for selecting and adjusting ground-motion models for specific target regions: application to Central Europe and rock sites, Journal of Seismology, 10, 137-156, DOI: 110.1007/s10950-10005-19006-10957. (PDF)

Diallo, M. S., M. Kulesh, M. Holschneider, K. Kurennaya, and F. Scherbaum (2006). Instantaneous polarization attributes based on an adaptive covariance method, Geophysics, 71(5), V99-V104. (PDF)

Diallo, M. S., M. Kulesh, M. Holschneider, F. Scherbaum, and F. Adler (2006). Characterization of polarization attributes of seismic waves using continuous wavelet transforms, Geophysics, 71(3), V67-V77. (PDF)

Douglas, J., H. Bungum, and F. Scherbaum (2006). Ground-motion prediction equations for southern Spain and souther Norway obtained using the composite model perspective, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 10(1), 33-72. (PDF)

Ewald, M., H. Igel, K. G. Hinzen, and F. Scherbaum (2006). Basin-related effects on ground motion for earthquake scenarios in the Cologne basin, Germany, Geophysical Journal International, 166, 197-212. (PDF)

Hainzl, S., F. Scherbaum, and C. Beauval (2006). Estimating background activity based on interevent-time distribution, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 96(1), 313-320. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., J. J. Bommer, F. Cotton, H. Bungum, and F. Sabetta. (2006). Ground-Motion Prediction in PSHA: A Post-PEGASOS Perspective. Paper presented at the First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva, Switzerland. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., F. Cotton, and H. Staedtke (2006). The estimation of minimum-misfit stochastic models from empirical prediction equations, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 96(2), 427-445. (PDF)

Suryanto, W., H. Igel, J. Wassermann, A. Cochard, B. Schuberth, D. Vollmer, F. Scherbaum, U. Schreiber, and A. Velikoseltsev (2006). First Comparison of Array-Derived Rotational Ground Motions with Direct Ring Laser Measurements, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 96, 2059-2071. (PDF)

Beauval, C., S. Hainzl, and F. Scherbaum (2006). The Impact of the Spatial Uniform Distribution of Seismicity on Probabilistic Seismic-Hazard Estimation, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 96, 2465-2471. (PDF)

2005

Bommer, J. J. , and F. Scherbaum. (2005). Capturing and limiting ground-motion uncertainty in seismic hazard assessment. In P. Gulkan andJ. C. Anderson (Eds.), Future Directions in Instrumentation for Strong Motion and Engineering Seismology (pp. 25-40): Kluwer Academic Press. (PDF)

Bommer, J. J., F. Scherbaum, H. Bungum, F. Cotton, F. Sabetta, and N. A. Abrahamson (2005). On the use of logic trees for ground-motion prediction equations in seismic-hazard analysis, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 95(2), 377-389. (PDF)

Cochard, A., H. Igel, B. Schuberth, W. Suryanto, A. Velikoseltsev, U. Schreiber, J. Wassermann, F. Scherbaum, and D. Vollmer. (2005). Rotational motions in seismology: theory, observation, simulation. In R. Teisseyre, M. Takeo andE. Majewski (Eds.), Earthquake source assymetry, structural media and rotational effects: Springer Academic Press. (PDF)

Diallo, M. S., M. Kulesh, M. Holschneider, and F. Scherbaum (2005). Instantaneous polarization attributes in the time-frequency domain and wave field separation, Geophysical Prospecting, 53(5), 723-732. (PDF)

Holschneider, M., M. S. Diallo, M. Kulesh, M. Ohrnberger, E. Luck, and F. Scherbaum (2005). Characterization of dispersive surface waves using continuous wavelet transforms, Geophysical Journal International, 163(2), 463-478. (PDF)

Kulesh, M., M. Holschneider, M. S. Diallo, Q. Xie, and F. Scherbaum (2005). Modeling of Wave Dispersion Using Continuous Wavelet Transforms, Pure and Applied Geophysics, 162, 843-855. (PDF)

Musson, R. M. W., G. R. Toro, K. J. Coppersmith, J. J. Bommer, N. Deichmann, H. Bungum, F. Cotton, F. Scherbaum, and N. A. Abrahamson (2005). Evaluating hazard results for Switzerland and how not to do it: A discussion of "Problems in the application of the SSHAC probability method for assessing earthquake hazards at Swiss nuclear power plants" by J-U Klügel, Engineering Geology, 82, 43-55. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., J. J. Bommer, H. Bungum, F. Cotton, and N. A. Abrahamson (2005). Composite ground-motion models and logic trees: methodology, sensitivities, and uncertainties, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 95(5), 1575-1593. (PDF)

Schmedes, J., S. Hainzl, S. K. Reamer, F. Scherbaum, and K. G. Hinzen (2005). Moment release in the lower Rhine Embayment, Germany: Seismological Perspective of the deformation process, Geophysical Journal International, 160(3), 901-909. (PDF)

2004

Bommer, J. J., N. A. Abrahamson, F. O. Strasser, A. Pecker, P. Y. Bard, H. Bungum, F. Cotton, D. Fäh, F. Sabetta, F. Scherbaum, and J. Studer (2004). The challenge of defining upper bounds on earthquake ground motions, Seismological Research Letters, 75(1), 82-95. (PDF)

Bommer, J. J., F. Scherbaum, F. Cotton, H. Bungum, and F. Sabetta (2004). Discussion "Uncertainty analysis of strong-motion and seismic hazard" by R. Sigbjörnsson and N. N. Ambraseys, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 2, 261-267. (PDF)

Desert, Group, M. Weber, K. Abu-Ayyash, A. Abueladas, A. Agnon, H. Al-Amoush, A. Babeyko, Y. Bartov, M. Baumann, Z. Ben-Avraham, G. Bock, J. Bribach, R. El-Kelani, A. Förster, H. J. Förster, U. Frieslander, Z. Garfunkel, S. Grunewald, H. J. Gštze, V. Haak, Ch Haberland, M. Hassouneh, S. Helwig, A. Hofstetter, K. H. Jäckel, D. Kesten, R. Kind, N. Maercklin, J. Mechie, A. Mohsen, F. M. Neubauer, R. Oberhänsli, I. Qabbani, O. Ritter, G. Rümpker, M. Rybakov, T. Ryberg, F. Scherbaum, J. Schmidt, A. Schulze, S. Sobolev, M. Stiller, H. Thoss, U. Weckmann, and K. Wylegalla (2004). The crustal structure of the Dead Sea Transform, GJI Tectonics and Geodynamics, 156, 655-681. (PDF)

Hinzen, K. G., B. Weber, and F. Scherbaum (2004). On the resolution of H/V measurements to determine sediment thickness, a case study across a normal fault in the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany, Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 8(6), 909-926. (PDF)

Köhler, A., M. Ohrnberger, F. Scherbaum, S. Stange, and F. Kind (2004). Ambient vibration measurements in the Southern Rhine Graben close to Basle, Annals of Geophysics, 47(6), 1771-1781. (PDF)

Kummerow, J., R. Kind, O. Oncken, P. Giese, T. Ryberg, K. Wylegalla, F. Scherbaum, and Transalp Working Group (2004). A natural and controlled source seismic profile through the Eastern Alps, EPSL, 225(1-2), 115-129. (PDF)

Malischewsky, P. G. , and F. Scherbaum (2004). Love's formula and H/V-ratio (ellipticity) of Rayleigh waves, Wave motion, 40, 57-67. (PDF)

Ohrnberger, M., F. Scherbaum, F. Krüger, R. Pelzing, and S. K. Reamer (2004). How good are shear wave velocity models in the Lower Rhine Embayment (NW-Germany) obtained from inversion of ambient vibrations?, Bolletino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata, 45(3), 215-232. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., F. Cotton, and P. Smit (2004). On the use of response spectral-reference data for the selection of ground-motion models for seismic hazard analysis: the case of rock motion, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94(6), 2164-2185. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., J. Schmedes, and F. Cotton (2004). On the conversion of source-to-site distance measures for extended earthquake source models, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94(3), 1053-1069. (PDF)

2003

Haberland, Ch, A. Agnon, R. El-Kelani, N. Maercklin, I. Qabbani, G. Rümpker, T. Ryberg, F. Scherbaum, and M. Weber (2003). Modelling of seismic guided waves at the Dead Sea Transform, Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(B7), 2342, doi:2310.1029/2002JB002309. (PDF)

Hainzl, S., G. Zöller, and F. Scherbaum (2003). Earthquake clusters resulting from delayed rupture propagation in finite fault segments, Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(B1). (PDF)

Scherbaum, F. (2003). Analysis of Digital Earthquake Signals. In International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology (Vol. 81A). (PDF)

Scherbaum, F., K. G. Hinzen, and M. Ohrnberger (2003). Determination of shallow shear wave velocity profiles in the Cologne Germany area using ambient vibrations, Geophysical Journal International, 152, 597-612. (PDF)

Scherbaum, F. The Earth as Muscial Instrument , Public Lecture at the 17th Annual Conference of the Academia Europaea, held at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam on 23rd September 2005.

Abstract: The Earth moves constantly. It changes its shape according to many different time scales ranging from millions of years to milliseconds. There is not a single moment of rest. What, if we could hear this movement as sound ? In this multimedia presentation, the generation of sound within the Earth is analysed from the perspective of musical acoustics. Based on the comparison with the generation of sound in well-known musical instruments, the interior of the Earth reveals itsself as a fascinating soundscape.