Liquefaction evidence for strong earthquakes of Holocene and latest Pleistocene ages in the states of Indiana and Illinois, USA

Liquefaction hazard for the region of Evansville, Indiana

“…The lower probability of LPI being greater than 5 for a New Madrid earthquake is consistent with the fact that liquefaction features have not been found in the Ohio River valley that match documented New Madrid events, although features could have been eroded away (Obermeier, 1998). Also, evidence of liquefaction features from the New Madrid earthquakes appears to be limited to areas south of Saline Creek in southern Illinois (Obermeier, 1996).…”

“…event and is located N-NE of Evansville along the Wabash River. At this location, Holocene point-bar or late Wisconsinan braid-bar sands and gravels are overlain by a cap of silty clays (Obermeier, 1998). The next closest features are associated with the 6,100 B.P.…”

The Traces of Earthquake (Seismites): Examples from Lake Van Deposits (Turkey)

“…Whenever, deformation structures in Lake Van deposits were evaluated for seismic origin; (1) grain size of the deformed sediments stay in liquefaction range (Port and Harbour Research Institute of Japan, 1997), (2) deformation structures are frequently observed in different levels of sequence which dissociated with undeformed, parallel beds (Fig. 7), (3) shapes, dimensions, geometry, sedimentologic and geotechnic properties of deformation structures are very similar to presented in previous works (Sims, 1975;Rossetti, 1999;Vanneste et al, 1999;Jones & Omoto, 2000;Bowman et al, 2004), (4) the region is very active for earthquakes (M≥5) and (5) soft sediment deformation structures in lacustrine deposits of Lake Van provide all criteria for the called as seismite (Sims, 1975;Obermeier, 1998;Rossetti, 1999).…”

Indicative Structures of Paleoseismicity in the Acequion River Valley, San Juan Province, Central-Western Argentina

“…It is notable that liquefaction structures were not found in the west sector of this paleo-lake, neither in northern nor in southern gullies eroded on these deposits. These observations suggest that the seismic source may have been located to the East because sand dikes become narrower with greater distance from the epicentre [25] [26].…”

“…For example, the spatial extent of liquefaction effects resulting from the 1886 Charleston earthquake (South Carolina, USA) (Ms 7.2) was used in combination with the size of liquefaction features to demonstrate that previous events had been at least as strong as that of 1886 [24]. In the Wabash Valley of Indiana Illinois, Munson et al [25] and Obermeier, [26] used these relationships to demonstrate that some of the prehistoric earthquakes occurred in this region exceeded Ms 7.…”