Late quaternary paleoseismic sedimentary archive from deep central gulf of corinth: Time distribution of inferred earthquake-induced layers

Abstract

A sedimentary archive corresponding to the last 17 cal kyr BP has been studied by means of a giant piston core retrieved on board R/V MAR-ION-DUFRESNE in the North Central Gulf of Corinth. Based on previous methodological improvements, grain-size distribution and Magnetic Susceptibility Anisotropy (MSA) have been analysed in order to detect earthquake-induced deposits. We indentified 36 specific layers -Homogen-ites+Turbidites (HmTu) - intercalated within continuous hemipelagic-type sediments (biogenic or bio-induced fraction and fine-grained siliciclastic fraction). The whole succession is divided into a non-marine lower half and a marine upper half. The "events" are distributed through the entire core and they are composed of two terms: a coarse-grained lower term and an upper homogeneous fine-grained term, sharply separated. Their average time recurrence interval could be estimated for the entire MD01-2477 core. The non-marine and the marine sections yielded close estimated values for event recurrence times of around 400 yrs to 500 yrs. © 2013 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. All rights reserved.