Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 46, Issue 11, Pages 6015-6023Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1029/2019GL082350
Keywords
surficial remobilization; seismic strengthening; sediment transport; slope stability; Japan Trench
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Funding
- Austrian Science Fund [P30285-N34, P29678]
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [03G0251A]
- Nachwuchsforderung 2016, University of Innsbruck
- Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [P29678] Funding Source: Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
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Strong earthquakes at active ocean margins can remobilize vast amounts of surficial slope sediments and dynamically strengthen the margin sequences. Current process understanding is obtained from resulting event deposits and low-resolution shear strength data, respectively. Here we directly target a site offshore Japan where both processes are expected to initiate, that is, at the uppermost part (15 cm) of a sedimentary slope sequence. Based on a novel application of short-lived radionuclide data, we identified, dated, and quantified centimeter-scale gaps related to surficial remobilization. Temporal correlation to the three largest regional earthquakes attest triggering by strong earthquakes (M-w >8). Also, extremely elevated shear strength values suggest a strong influence of seismic strengthening on shallow sediments. We show that despite enhanced slope stability by seismic strengthening, earthquake-induced sediment transport can occur through surficial remobilization, which has large implications for the assessment of turbidite paleoseismology and carbon cycling at active margins.
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