Thirty years of paleoseismic research in metropolitan France

Abstract

A critical review is conducted of a selection of paleoseismic works published on, or close to, metropolitan France over the last 30 years. The evolution of these works may be subdivided into three periods: dawn of French paleoseismic studies (≈1990–1995), beginning of a multidisciplinary paleoseismologic approach, and paleoseismic studies in the first decades of the 21st century. This review of the most interesting paleoseismic studies at nine trench sites indicates that it is often difficult to associate Quaternary surface deformations with a well-identified fault. However, these studies also provided important results demonstrating that even in regions of low seismicity, seismic ruptures can repeat on the same low slip rate fault, thus providing evidence that historical seismicity is not sufficient to assess seismic hazard in metropolitan France. Finally, recommendations are provided for future paleoseismic investigations in low-seismicity regions.