Seismites resulting from high-frequency, high-magnitude earthquakes in Latvia caused by Late Glacial glacio-isostatic uplift

Abstract

Geologically extremely rapid changes in altitude by glacial rebound of the Earth crust after retreat of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet at the end of the last Weichselian glaciation influenced the palaeogeography of northern Europe. The uplift of the Earth crust apparently was not gradual, but shock-wise, as the uplift was accompanied by frequent, high-magnitude earthquakes. This can be deduced from strongly deformed layers which are interpreted as seismites. Such seismites have been described from several countries around the Baltic Sea, including Sweden, Germany and Poland. Now similarly deformed layers that must also be interpreted as seismites, have been discovered also in Latvia, a Baltic country that was covered by an ice sheet during the last glaciation. The seismites were found at two sites: Near Valmiera in the NE part and near Rakuti in the SE part of the country. The seismites were found in sections of about 7 m and 4.5 m high, respectively, that consist mainly of glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine sands and silts. At the Valmiera site, 7 seismites were found, and at the Rakuti site these were even 12 seismites. The two sections have not been dated precisely up till now, but lithological correlations and geomorphological characteristics suggest that the sediments at the Valmiera site cannot be older than 14.5 ka. Because the accumulation of the section did not take more than about 1000 years, the average recurrence time of the high-magnitude (M ≥ 4.5–5.0) earthquakes must have been maximally only 100–150 years, possibly only 6–7 years. The sediments at Rakuti must also have formed within approx. 1000 years (17–16 ka), implying a recurrence time of high-magnitude earthquakes of maximally once per 100–200 years.

Keywords

• Soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS), Seismites
• Latvia
• Glacio-isostatic rebound
• Earthquake recurrence time