Dr. Yin Lu, FWF - Lise Meitner Fellow at Sedimentary Geology Group, University of Innsbruck. He focuses on subaqueous paleoseismology & sedimentary processes. Received EGU SSP (Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology) Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award (2022).
We investigated homogeneous muds, turbidites, and debrites that were preserved in a 457-m deep ICDP drilling (220-0 ka) from the Dead Sea depocenter. Based on previous flash flood measuring, surface plume monitoring, and sediment traps monitoring in the lake center, we link homogeneous muds in the deep core to overflows, and link turbidites and debrites to underflows. The study bridges the gap between our understanding of modern sediment density flow processes and deposits preserved in a long-term geological record in the Dead Sea, a tectonically active subaqueous environment (Dead Sea rift zone).
A recent study investigated seismogenic mass failure deposits that were preserved in a 457-m deep ICDP drilling (220-0 ka) from the Dead Sea depocenter. The study conducted a critical assessment and testing of the links between the occurrence of seismogenic mass failure, changes in water-level, and sedimentation rate driven by a changing climate.
1. Key Points: • At the orbital- and millennial-scale, variable sedimentation rates are not a preconditioning factor for earthquake-triggered mass failures • At the centennial- to decadal-scale, earthquake-triggered mass failures are not statistically correlated with lake-level state • At the orbital- and millennial-scale, the mass failures are more frequent during lake-level high-stands with large-amplitude fluctuations
A recent study investigated disturbances that preserved in the upper 260 m of a 723-m deep core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline in the western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet.
1. Key Points: • We interpret micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators • The core records five seismite clusters between 3.6 and 2.7 Ma, revealing episodic thrusting in relation to intense regional deformation • During the clusters, regional deformation was concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults
A recent study investigated turbidites that preserved in a 457-m deep ICDP drilling from the Dead Sea depocenter. This is the first work to show detailed information on turbidites in the region.
1. Key Points:
Seismic origin for prehistoric turbidites is established by analyzing the underlying in situ deformation structures for each turbidite
Data validate a previous hypothesis that soft-sediment deformation formed at the sediment-water interface in the Dead Sea
The new approach permits a more confident geohazard assessment by improving the completeness of a paleoseismic archive
This is the first attempt to apply a computational fluid dynamic modeling-based quantitative “fossil seismograph” to develop a large earthquake record.
The record is calibrated to historic earthquakes, for which the Dead Sea area has a famously long span, and it confirms a clustered earthquake recurrence pattern and a group-fault temporal clustering model.
The record yields much shorter mean recurrence for large (≤ 1.4 kyr vs. 7-11 kyr) and moderate (≤ 500 yr vs. 1600 yr) earthquakes than previously obtained, thus reveals a much higher seismic hazard than previously appreciated on this slow-slipping plate boundary.
To increase the visibility of activities of Paleoseismicity.org to Chinese in China and around the world and to promote potential interactions with Chinese, I opened an account for Paleoseismicity.org on the WeChat platform last week. The account was named “古地震”. (“古地震” means “paleoseismicity” in English).
