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18 - Soft-Sediment Deformation Structures in the Eastern Baltic Region

Implication in Seismicity and Glacially Triggered Faulting

from Part IV - Glacially Triggered Faulting at the Edge and in the Periphery of the Fennoscandian Shield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

By
Albertas Bitinas ,
Jurga Lazauskienė  and
Małgorzata (Gosia) Pisarska-Jamroży
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

This section presents a detailed overview of soft-sediment deformation structures of possibly seismic origin in the Eastern Baltic Region. Recent studies of soft-sediment deformation structures discovered in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and the Kaliningrad District of Russia demonstrated that their formation could have been caused by fluidization and liquefaction of sediments possibly triggered by palaeoearthquakes; thus, they could be interpreted as seismites. An identification of corresponding seismogenic faults is complicated though due to the rather small scale of the tectonic dislocations in the intracratonic area with up to 2.5-km thick Phanerozoic sedimentary cover. Nevertheless, a part of soft-sediment deformation structures can be interpreted as seismites and attributed to the seismic events triggered by glacial isostatic adjustment of the lithosphere during the Last (Weichselian) glacial advance and subsequent deglaciation.

Keywords

Soft-Sediment Deformation StructuresPalaeoearthquakesSeismitesGlacial Isostatic AdjustmentEstoniaLithuaniaLatviaBelarusKaliningradLandslide
Type
Chapter
Information
Glacially-Triggered Faulting , pp. 320 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

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