Evidence for Holocene paleoseismicity along the Basel-Reinach Active Normal Fault (Switzerland): A Seismic Source for the 1356 Earthquake in the Upper Rhine Graben

Details Evidence for Holocene paleoseismicity along the Basel-Reinach Active Normal Fault (Switzerland): A Seismic Source for the 1356 Earthquake in the Upper Rhine Graben Evidence for Holocene paleoseismicity along the Basel-Reinach Active Normal Fault (Switzerland): A Seismic Source for the 1356 Earthquake in the Upper Rhine Graben

Apr 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....7053f&link_type=abstract

EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #7053

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We conducted a paleoseismic study with geomorphologic mapping, geophysical prospecting and trenching along an 8-km-long NNE-SSW trending fault scarp south of Basel. The city as well as 40 castles within a 20-km radius were destroyed or heavily damaged by the earthquake of 18th October 1356 (Io = IX-X MKS), the largest historical seismic event in central Europe. Active river incisions as well as late Quaternary alluvial terraces are uplifted along the linear Basel-Reinach fault scarp. The active normal fault shows at least two main branches reaching the surface as attested by resistivity profiles, reflection seismic data, and direct observations in six trenches. In trenches, the normal fault rupture affects three colluvial wedge deposits up to the base of the present day soil. Radiocarbon as well as thermoluminescence age determinations from other trenches helped reconstruct the Holocene events chronology. We identified three seismic events with an average coseismic movement of 0.5 - 0.8 m and a total vertical displacement of 1.8 m in the last 7800 years and five events in the last 13200 years. The most recent event occurred in the interval 610 - 1475 A.D. (2sigma) and may likely correspond to the 1356 earthquake. Furthermore, the morphology suggests both a southern and northern fault extensions that may reach 20 km across the Jura Mountains and across the Rhine Valley. Taking this fault length and a 10 km-thick seismogenic layer suggests a M 6.5 or greater event as a possible scenario for the seismic hazard assessment of the Basel region.

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