Cover: Satellite detects surface thermal anomalies associated with the Algerian earthquakes of May 2003

On 21 May 2003, Algeria was hit by a powerful shallow focus earthquake of magnitude Mw56.8 (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/03_EVENTS/eq_030521/) at 18:44 (UTC) which led to the death of 2276 people, injured more than 11 000 people and left 200 000 people homeless (http://www.reliefweb.int/w/ rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/b49cf0730dc7884149256d480021ee90? OpenDocument). The geographical location of the epicentre was 36.90uN latitude and 3.71uE longitude (figure 1), just offshore from the province of Boumerdes, and about 60 km ENE of the capital city of Algiers. The province of Boumerdes, including the coastal city of Boumerdes, Thenia, Rouiba and the eastern district of Algiers are among the heavily damaged regions by this ‘Boumerdes earthquake’ (www.Reliefweb.int/w/ rwb.Nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/b342fd7d3ea5bb285256d4000671dce? OpenDocument). The earthquake has been named after the worst hit region, Boumerdes in Algeria. Notable large-scale concrete structure damage was witnessed in this earthquake. Since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, the country has seen a rapid rise in urbanization. There has been a growth in the building of concrete structures in the cities. The heavily damaged or collapsed buildings were mainly built within the last decade, some just completed or in the process of completion. Widespread liquefaction, rock falls, landslides and ground cracking were reported in the earthquake-affected region. However, no clear case of fault rupturing was reported (www-megacities.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/wwwmega/downloads/QuakeReport1_2June03.pdf). A tsunami generated with an estimated wave height of 2 m caused damage to boats and underwater telephonic cables off the Balearic Islands, Spain (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/03_EVENTS/eq_030521/). This major earthquake was followed by a number of low intensity earthquakes (table 1), which continued till 29 May 2003. Minutes after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake played havoc in northern Algeria, a 5.7 Mw earthquake occurred at 18:51 (UTC), with an epicentre at 36.97uN latitude and 3.85uE longitude (http:// neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/03_EVENTS/eq_030527/neic_uhbj_m.html). Other aftershocks of magnitude greater than 5 (Mw) occurred on 22, 27 and 28 May 2003. More than 21 aftershocks (table 1) were reported within nine days beginning from 21 May 2003, ranging in magnitude from 2.4 to 5.8 (Mw). Land Surface Temperature (LST) maps generated from thermal images of NOAA-AVHRR datasets can be used to monitor the Earth’s thermal regime for any