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Cosmogenic Nuclide Dating
of Earthquakes, Faults,
and Toppled Blocks Ridge and channel
offsets along the trace of
the Fuyun fault (China),
Lucilla C. Benedetti1 and Jérôme van der Woerd2 site of the 11 August
1931 magnitude-8
strike-slip earthquake.
1811-5209/14/0010-357$2.50 DOI: 10.2113/gselements.10.5.357 Constraining the age
of past displacements
allows reconstructing
W
hen the recurrence intervals of large earthquakes span several fault slip histories.
thousands of years, the dating of fault movements over long time
estimates of the ages of morpho-
intervals is essential for estimating the next event. Constraining
logical markers, such as river
the age of faulting, earthquake recurrence, or toppled rocks is especially terraces, repeatedly offset by faults;
important for determining if a fault is likely to break again soon. In recent seismically exhumed fault scarps;
years, cosmogenic nuclides have provided new insights into the dating of and even blocks that collapsed
during earthquake events (FIG. 2).
these ground movements. Approaches to gathering this information can be Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides
direct, such as dating fault surfaces with 36Cl, or indirect, such as dating are commonly applied to vertical
fault-offset alluvial fans with 10 Be or 26Al. New results from these methods faults in limestone using 36Cl and
to horizontal faults in quartz-rich
are certain to better define the tectonic and seismic hazards in areas with rocks using 10Be and 26Al. Because
increasing population density. such features often integrate fault
KEYWORDS : earthquakes, slip rate, geomorphology, cumulative fault scarp, 36Cl movement over several thousands
and 10 Be cosmogenic nuclides to hundreds of thousands of years,
the use of cosmogenic nuclides
has revolutionized the quantifica-
INTRODUCTION tion of fault movement by fi lling a critical gap between
When a strong earthquake occurs, the length and height geodetically recorded slip rates and geological slip rates
of the earthquake rupture is proportional to the amount (e.g. Frankel et al. 2007).
of released energy (Wells and Coppersmith 1994). The
observation and accurate study of such ruptures allow an
estimate of how much of the slip has propagated to surface Morphochronology
and how this slip is distributed along the fault length. Geodesy Surface-exposure Geology
The incremental addition of the slip associated with each
dating
earthquake creates topographic relief that is eroded with
time. The resulting displacement of Earth’s surface along
a fault can be horizontal or vertical and usually occurs at
the limit between two tectonic plates colliding or sliding
past each other.
Determining the age and size of past strong earthquakes T2
T3
provides important information for estimating the repeat- T0 T1
2m
Q1 Q1 on the best-preserved part of the fault
2m
Q2 Q2 sampling in the Apennines, Italy.
(C) By comparing the measured 36Cl
2 concentrations of each sample with the
2 ky
2m
Q3 Q3
theoretical ones modeled as in (A), the
seismic history of the fault is retrieved
0 (ky = thousand years). Dates are repro-
duced from Schlagenhauf et al. (2011) and
are for the Magnola fault in the Apennines.
-2 At this site, the 11 m high fault scarp has
been exhumed by fi ve earthquake events
over the last 8 thousand years. Each event
BB -4 produced a vertical slip of 2–3 m. Three
0 1 2 3 4 5 events are clustered 4 to 5 ky ago. The two
36 -1 x 105
[ Cl] (at.g ) other events are separated by a long-time
intervals of 3–4 thousand years with no
earthquake events.
CC
Cumulative slip (m)
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
10
cm
15 cm 3 cm Time (ky)
whether the fault is in a quiescent phase or a paroxysmal studies, this application of cosmogenic nuclides is useful
phase, which is critical for better anticipating the timing for assessing if a region has been seismically quiet for an
and size of future strong earthquakes in, for example, the extended period of time.
Mediterranean region.
DATING GEOMORPHIC MARKERS
Dating the Effects of Strong Ground Motion SUCH AS TERRACES, ALLUVIAL FANS,
Another way to assess the age of past earthquakes is to AND MORAINES
date the effects of strong ground motion. Strong earth-
quakes can trigger major rockfalls (Bull 2007), such as the Determination of Fault Slip Rates
ones that occurred after the Christchurch earthquake in The use of surface offsets to determine fault slip rates
New Zealand in 2011 (Kaiser et al. 2012) and dislodged requires sites where well-defi ned geomorphic features were
boulders the size of cars. In 1348, one of the most devas- fi rst created, then preserved as displacement markers along
tating earthquakes in northern Europe occurred at the the fault. The primary agents that create distinct landscape
Italy–Austria–Slovenia border, generating six simultaneous, features through time are glacial and fluvial processes, both
large rockfalls (Merchel et al. 2014). Several million cubic of which are modulated by climate. When several earth-
meters of boulders collapsed at once. Similar rockfalls quakes occur on a fault, passive markers, such as abandoned
that occurred in the past can be dated using cosmogenic terraces and moraines, become deformed and/or offset by
nuclides. Assuming that the fresh surfaces of the collapsed the incremental fault motion. Typical examples occur when
boulders experienced negligible exposure to cosmic rays faults cut across alluvial fans along the piedmonts of rising
prior to the rockfall, the accumulation of cosmogenic mountain ranges (Van der Woerd et al. 2006) (FIG. 2B).
nuclides, such as 10Be in quartz-rich boulders and 36Cl in Accurate measurements of such offsets give estimates of
limestone boulders, can be used to date the rockfall event. the cumulative deformation that has occurred after the
In the Sierra Nevada, several rockfalls have been dated markers became passive. Accurate dating of these markers
using this approach, and the exposure ages suggest that can then yield a quantitative estimate of the fault slip rate
a strong earthquake may have triggered a large rockfall over a specific time range.
about 3600 years ago near Yosemite (Stock and Uhrhammer
2010). The most promising locations for obtaining well-constrained
slip rates are where fluvial processes have created multiple
Conversely, the presence of precariously balanced boulders inset terraces and risers, allowing for slip-rate determina-
in earthquake-prone areas suggests that no major ground tions over distinct time intervals at a single site along the
motion has occurred since the boulders acquired their fault. In principle, when a depositional landform is created
fragile positions. After a boulder falls, cosmogenic nuclides (and begins to passively record fault slip), the boulders,
can reveal when the contact between the boulder and the pebbles, and sand that compose the landform’s surface
support on which it rested was fi rst exposed to cosmic start accumulating cosmogenic nuclides. By measuring the
rays. This moment corresponds to the time when the concentration of nuclides in surface samples, it is possible
rock became vulnerable to earthquake ground motions to deduce when the landform was created.
(Balco et al. 2011). Together with other paleoseismological
e m is t r y
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