Can turbidites be used to reconstruct a paleoearthquake record for the central Sumatran margin?: COMMENT

Turbidite paleoseismology along the active continental margin of Chile – Feasible or not?

“…After the initial tests on limited cores for the general feasibility and the ease of a record compilation, thorough comparison to known historical and paleoseismic events from other archives should be established to obtain a better understanding of the test core archive to capture seismically induced turbidites and/ or the probability of turbidite generation through great events. Depending on the data set, these tests may not lead to the same conclusions, even along the same margin (Goldfinger et al, , 2014Patton et al, 2013;Sumner et al, 2013Sumner et al, , 2014Atwater et al, 2014) and the entirety of the available data has to be regarded.…”

“…Recently, it has been stressed by Goldfinger et al (2014) that sample sites for paleoseismic records based on turbidites should be focused towards the center of seismotectonic segments. However, seismic turbidite generation is associated with shaking intensity, which is not necessarily the strongest in the segment center, but can peak even at the margins of a rupture zone and beyond ( Fig.…”

“…Furthermore, the details of site selection with regard to the specific depositional environment, sediment gravity flow paths, variations of sediment supply, and to the position within seismic segments or individual earthquake rupture zones are strongly debated (Goldfinger et al, , 2014Patton et al, 2013;Sumner et al, 2013Sumner et al, , 2014Atwater et al, 2014). Until the underlying controls of why a submarine slope is predisposed to widespread failure are better understood, turbidite paleoseismology should be applied with considerable caution (e.g., Sumner et al, 2013).…”

IODP workshop: tracking the Tsunamigenic slips across and along the Japan Trench (JTRACK)

“…The Japan Trench was identified by the workshop participants to be an area well predisposed for submarine paleoseismology according to criteria recently discussed in the open literature (i.e., Sumner et al, 2013;Atwater et al, 2014;Goldfinger et al, 2014). Sediment resuspension and redeposition related to the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake has been documented and the respective deposits are preserved in basins formed by flexural bending of the Pacific plate.…”

Can turbidites be used to reconstruct a paleoearthquake record for the central Sumatran margin?: REPLY

“…We thank Goldfinger et al (2014) for their Comment on our paper (Sumner et al, 2013) concerning turbidite paleoseismology on the Sumatran margin.…”