Active intraplate deformation in central Europe: paleoseismology of the Lower Rhine Embayment

我们提出了一项多学科研究，以确定最近在下莱茵湾南段活动断裂上发生的突破性地震事件的年龄。该项目的主要目标是检验假设，即在迪伦南部的Untermaubach的0.5米高的陡坎与1755/56年的Düren地震系列有关，发现沿同一陡峭的较老的事件，并确定在下莱茵湾东部边缘的ERFT断层系统的晚更新世沉积中有多少事件对年轻的陡坎负责。这项研究的结果将有助于揭示这些缓慢变形断裂的近期地震历史和复发间隔，并建立一个新的断层滑动速率数据库，用于重新评估该地区的地震危险性。此外，我们还将把跨越所有陡坎的地球物理数据与从海沟获得的地质数据进行比较，以进一步验证探地雷达、地震、电磁等地球物理方法作为重要工具的适用性，以定位和表征湿润气候地区的缓慢活动断裂。我们已经完成了所有重要的前期步骤，包括地形测量、钻芯取样和地球物理勘探，并能够选择合适的挖沟地点。

We propose a multidisciplinary study to determine the age of the most recent ground-breaking earthquake events on active faults in the southern sector of the Lower Rhine Embayment. The main goals of this project are to test the hypothesis that a 0.5m high scarp at Untermaubach, south of Düren, is related to the 1755/56 Düren earthquake series, to discover older events along the same scarp, and to determine how many events were responsible for young scarps in Late Pleistocene deposits of the Erft fault system along the eastern margin of Lower Rhine Embayment. The results of this study will shed light on the recent earthquake history and recurrence intervals of these slowly deforming faults, and lead to a new fault slip-rate data base which will be used to reevaluate seismic hazards in this region. Furthermore, we will compare the geophysical data across alll scarps with the geologic data obtained from the trenches to further calibrate the applicability of GPR, seismic, electromagnetic, and other geophysical methods as important tools, to locate and charactrize slow-moving active faults in humid climatic regions. We already have completed all important preliminary steps, including topographic surveying, drill core sampling, and geophysical exploration, and have been able to select suitables trenching sites.