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11 - Postglacial Faulting in Norway

Large Magnitude Earthquakes of the Late Holocene Age

from Part III - Glacially Triggered Faulting in the Fennoscandian Shield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

By
Odleiv Olesen ,
Lars Olsen ,
Steven J. Gibbons ,
Bent Ole Ruud ,
Fredrik Høgaas ,
Tor Arne Johansen  and
Tormod Kværna
Edited by
Holger Steffen ,
Odleiv Olesen  and
Raimo Sutinen
Holger Steffen
Affiliation:
Lantmäteriet, Sweden
Odleiv Olesen
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Norway
Raimo Sutinen
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Finland
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Summary

The 90-km long Stuoragurra Fault Complex, part of the approximately 4–5-km wide Precambrian Mierojávri–Sværholt Shear Zone, constitutes the Norwegian part of the larger Lapland province of postglacial faults. It consists of three separate fault systems being 6–12 km apart. The faults dip 30–75° to the SE and can be traced to about 500 m depth. Deep seismic profiling shows that the shear zone dips at an angle of about 43° to the southeast and can be traced to about 3 km depth. A total of approximately 80 earthquakes were registered here between 1991 and 2019. Most of them occurred to the southeast of the fault scarps. The maximum moment magnitude was 4.0. The formation of postglacial faults in northern Fennoscandia has previously been associated with the deglaciation of the last inland ice. Dating of fault reactivation reveals, however, a late Holocene age (between around 700 and 4000 a BP). The reverse displacement of around 9 m and fault system lengths of 14 and 21 km of the two southernmost fault systems indicate a moment magnitude of about 7. The results from this study indicate that the expected maximum magnitude of future earthquakes in Fennoscandia is about 7.

Keywords

Postglacial FaultLandslideTrenchingRadiocarbon DatingReflection SeismicsStuoragurra Fault ComplexNordmannvikdalen FaultNorwayIntraplate SeismicityRupture Length
Type
Chapter
Information
Glacially-Triggered Faulting , pp. 198 - 217
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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