Sedimentology and Paleoclimate Lab
Occidental College
Lacustrine Paleoseismology
Paleoseismic histories derived from lacustrine sediments have become increasingly common for determining past seismic activity. Lake basins in tectonically active regions can preserve indirect evidence of past earthquakes due to coseismic shaking, which mobilizes and reworks sediment in the lake and its catchment, and results in diagnostic deposits in the sediment stratigraphy. The ability to construct continuous, precisely-dated, and temporally long paleoseismic histories from lakes makes them strong complements to other paleoseismic methods, such as fault scarp trench exposures, which can provide more direct evidence of surface rupturing earthquakes (including rupture age and surface displacement), but which can be discontinuous and/or temporally restricted to recent rupture events and typically have large dating uncertainties.
Lacustrine Paleoseismology
Related Publications, Grants, and Awards
Larsen, D.J., Crump, S.E., Abbott, M.B., Harbert, W., *Blumm, A.R., Wattrus, N., Heberger, J., 2019. Paleoseismic evidence for climatic and magmatic controls on the Teton Fault, WY. Geophysical Research Letters 46, doi: 10.1029/2019GL085475.
National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program (NSF-MRI). “MRI: Acquisition of a Malvern Particle Size Analyzer for Interdisciplinary Research and Undergraduate Education and Research Training” (Co-PI: A. Stubler); NSF Award# 2116744 (2021-2024).
National Geographic Society Research Grant. “Lakes and Quakes: Using alpine lake sediments to unravel the earthquake history of Grand Teton National Park, WY”; Award #NGS-153R-18 (2018-present).
National Science Foundation Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics Program (NSF-GLD). “RUI: Collaborative Research: Quantifying the roles of tectonic activity and climate as drivers of glacial-interglacial landscape evolution in the Teton Range, Wyoming” (Co-PI's: J. Licciardi, G. Thackray); NSF Award #1755067 (2018-present)
National Science Foundation Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics (NSF-GLD) EAGER Program “Reconstructing the paleoseismic history of the Teton Fault using lake sediments at Grand Teton National Park, WY”; (Co-PI; M. Abbott); NSF Award #1546677 (2015-2017).