Sea-level-induced seismicity and submarine landslide occurrence
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Abstract
The temporal coincidence between rapid late Pleistocene sea-level rise and large-scale slope failures is widely documented. Nevertheless, the physical mechanisms that link these phenomena are poorly understood, particularly along nonglaciated margins. Here we investigate the causal relationships between rapid sea-level rise, flexural stress loading, and increased seismicity rates along passive margins. We find that Coulomb failure stress across fault systems of passive continental margins may have increased more than 1 MPa during rapid late Pleistocene–early Holocene sea-level rise, an amount sufficient to trigger fault reactivation and rupture. These results suggest that sea-level–modulated seismicity may have contributed to a number of poorly understood but widely observed phenomena, including (1) increased frequency of large-scale submarine landslides during rapid, late Pleistocene sea-level rise; (2) emplacement of coarse-grained mass transport deposits on deep-sea fans during the early stages of marine transgression; and (3) the unroofing and release of methane gas sequestered in continental slope sediments.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Sea-level-induced seismicity and submarine landslide occurrence |
| Series title | Geology |
| DOI | 10.1130/G34410.1 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Year Published | 2013 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Geological Society of America |
| Contributing office(s) | Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center |
| Description | 4 p. |
| First page | 979 |
| Last page | 982 |
| Online Only (Y/N) | N |
| Additional Online Files (Y/N) | N |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |