Extraordinary Deglaciation Reverse Faulting in Northern Fennoscandia

Abstract

In Northern Fennoscandia, a series of NNE-SSW trending reverse fault-scarps formed within the latest phase of déglaciation, around 9,000 years BP. Palaeoseismological and morphological evidence strongly suggest that individual fault scarps represent the surface outcrop of underlying crustal faults, whose movement was coseismic. Displacements on some of these faults exceed 10m. Movement of the longest fault, the 155km Pärvie Fault, is estimated.to have caused an earthquake with a seismic moment of 9x1027 dyne-cm (Mw 7.9).