What is SHARE (share-eu.org)?

Updated

SHARE (share-eu.org) is the website of Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe, a Collaborative Project under the Cooperation programme of the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme. Its main objective was to provide a community-based seismic hazard model for the Euro-Mediterranean region with update mechanisms. The project ended in 2013, but the site remains as a record of its scope, outputs, and documentation.

What the project set out to do

SHARE aimed to establish new standards in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) practice through close cooperation among leading European geologists, seismologists, and engineers. Its stated goals were to:

  • Build a framework for integration across national borders
  • Compile relevant earthquake and fault data
  • Develop a sustainable, high-impact, authoritative community-based hazard model
  • Assemble that model through extensive expert elicitation and multiple community feedback procedures

What the project delivered

SHARE successfully delivered a pan Euro-Mediterranean probabilistic seismic hazard assessment spanning multiple disciplines, from geology to seismology and earthquake engineering. The central output was the 2013 Euro-Mediterranean Seismic Hazard Model (ESHM13).

Key characteristics of ESHM13, as described on the site:

Feature Detail
Hazard maps More than sixty time-independent ground motion hazard maps
Spectral ordinates From PGA to 4 seconds
Exceedance probabilities 10⁻¹ to 10⁻⁴ yearly probability
Reference rock velocity vs30 = 800 m/s
Earthquake modelling Area sources, active faults, and smoothed background seismicity
Magnitude inclusion All events with Mw ≥ 4.5 in hazard value computation
Weighting scheme Reflects the importance of input data sets by time horizon — emphasising geologic knowledge for longer time horizons and seismological data for shorter ones

What you can find on the site

The site's navigation covers:

  • Home — project overview and status
  • SHARE Portal: Data Access — access to project data
  • About SHARE — background information
  • Work Packages — the project's organisational structure
  • Documents — project documentation
  • Related Projects — linked initiatives
  • Partner Area — for project partners
  • EC Resources — European Commission resources
  • Contact — contact information
  • Previous issues — archived material

Outreach materials, including the official poster and brochures, are hosted separately at efehr.org.

How to cite SHARE

If you use the project's work, the site provides these citations:

  • SHARE Project: Giardini, D., Woessner J., Danciu L., (2014) Mapping Europe's Seismic Hazard. EOS, 95(29): 261-262.
  • ESHM13 models and results: Woessner, J., Danciu L., D. Giardini and the SHARE consortium (2015), The 2013 European Seismic Hazard Model: key components and results, Bull. Earthq. Eng., doi:10.1007/s10518-015-9795-1.

Who this is for

SHARE is relevant if you need the ESHM13 hazard model or its underlying data, want to understand how a cross-border seismic hazard assessment was assembled, or need the correct citation for the 2013 model. Because the project ended in 2013, treat the site as an archive of that work rather than an actively maintained service — for current hazard models in the region, check the related EFHIR resources referenced in the project's outreach materials.