No abstract

Earthquake‐triggered landslides amplify erosion rates in catchments, i.e., catchment response (CR) to seismic shocks. In addition to historical eyewitness accounts of muddy rivers implying CRs after large earthquakes, several studies have quantitatively reported increased sediment concentrations in rivers after earthquakes. However, only a few paleolimnological studies could detect CRs within lacustrine sedimentary sequences as siliciclastic‐enriched intercalations within background sedimentation. Since siliciclastic‐enriched intercalations can easily be of nonseismic origin, their temporal correlation with nearby earthquakes is crucial to assign a seismic triggering mechanism. In most cases, either uncertainties in dating methods or the lack of recent seismic activity has prevented reliable temporal correlations, making the seismic origin of observed sedimentary events questionable. Here we attempt to remove this question mark by presenting sedimentary traces of CRs in the 370‐year‐long varved sequence of Köyceğiz Lake (SW Turkey) that we compare with estimated peak ground acceleration (PGA) values of several nearby earthquakes. We find that earthquakes exceeding estimated PGA values of ~20 cm/s2 can induce soft‐sediment deformations, while CRs seem only to be triggered by PGA levels higher than 70 cm/s2. In Köyceğiz Lake, CRs produce Cr‐ and Ni‐enriched sedimentation due to the seismically mobilized soils derived from ultramafic rocks in the catchment. Given the varve chronology, the residence time of the seismically mobilized material in the catchment is determined to be 5 to 10 years.

The Hazar Basin is a 25 km‐long, 7 km‐wide and 216 m‐deep depression located on the central section of the East Anatolian Fault zone (eastern Turkey) and predominantly overlain by Lake Hazar. This basin has been described previously as a pull‐apart basin because of its rhombic shape and an apparent fault step‐over between the main fault traces situated at the southwestern and northeastern ends of the lake. However, detailed structural investigation beneath Lake Hazar has not been undertaken previously to verify this interpretation. Geophysical and sedimentological data from Lake Hazar were collected during field campaigns in 2006 and 2007. The analysis of this data reveals that the main strand of the East Anatolian Fault (the Master Fault) is continuous across the Hazar Basin, connecting the two segments previously assumed to be the sidewall faults of a pull‐apart structure. In the northeastern part of the lake, an asymmetrical subsiding sub‐basin, bounded by two major faults, is cross‐cut by the Master Fault, which forms a releasing bend within the lake. Comparison of the structure revealed by this study with analogue models produced for transtensional step‐overs suggests that the Hazar Basin structure represents a highly evolved pull‐apart basin, to the extent that the previous asperity has been bypassed by a linking fault. The absence of a step‐over structure at the Hazar Basin means that no significant segmentation boundary is recognised on the East Anatolian Fault between Palu and Sincik. Therefore, this fault segment is capable of causing larger earthquakes than recognised previously.

Turbidity currents and their deposits can be investigated using several methods, i.e. direct monitoring, physical and numerical modelling, sediment cores and outcrops. The present study focuses on thin clayey sand turbidites found in Lake Hazar (Turkey) occurring in eleven clusters of closely spaced This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.