Speleoseismology: A critical perspective |
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| Authors: | Arnfried Becker Colin A Davenport Urs Eichenberger Eric Gilli Pierre-Yves Jeannin Corinne Lacave |
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| Institution: | (1) Sonneggstrasse 57, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland;(2) Grey Gables, The Street, Claxton, Norwich, Norfolk, NR14 7AS, UK;(3) SISKA, 68 rue de la Serre, Case postale 818, CH-2301, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland;(4) Département de géographie, Université Paris VIII, 2 rue de la Liberté, F-93526 St Denis cedex 02, France;(5) UMR Espace 6012, 98 boulevard Edouard Herriot, BP 3209, F-06204 Nice, France;(6) Résonance Ingénieurs-Conseils SA, 21 rue Jacques Grosselin, CH-1227 Carouge, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | Speleoseismology is the investigation of earthquake records in caves. Traces can be seen in broken speleothems, growth anomalies in speleothems, cave sediment deformation structures, displacements along fractures and bedding plane slip, incasion (rock fall) and co-seismic fault displacements. Where earthquake origins can be proven, these traces constitute important archives of local and even regional earthquake activity. However, other processes that can generate the same or very similar deformation features have to be excluded before cave damage can be interpreted as earthquake induced. Most sensitive and therefore most valuable for the tracing of strong earthquake shocks in caves are long and slender speleothems, such as soda straws, and deposits of well-bedded, water-saturated silty sand infillings, particularly in caves close to the earth's surface. Less easily proven is a co-seismic origin of an incasion and other forms of cave damage. The loads and creep movements of sediment and ice fillings in caves can cause severe damage to speleothems which have been frequently misinterpreted as evidence of earthquakes. For the dating of events in geological archives, it is important to demonstrate that such events happened at approximately the same time, i.e. within the error bars of the dating methods. A robust earthquake explanation for cave damage can only be achieved by the adoption of appropriate methods of direct dating of deformation events in cave archives combined with correlation of events in other geological archives outside caves, such as the deformation of lake and flood-plain deposits, locations of rock falls and active fault displacements. |
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| Keywords: | Speleoseismology Earthquakes Caves Speleothem damage Sediment deformation features Incasion |
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