COSMOGENIC NUCLIDES EXPOSURE DATING FOR BEDROCK FAULT SCARP: RECONSTRUCTING THE PALEOEARTHQUAKE SEQUENCE

The bedrock scarps are believed to have recorded the continuous information on displacement accumulation and sequence of large earthquakes. The occurrence timing of large earthquakes is believed to be correlated positively with the exposure duration of bedrock fault surfaces. Accordingly, cosmogenic nuclides concentration determined for the bedrock footwall can offer their times, ages, and slip over long time. In general, multiple sites of fault scarps along one or even more faults are selected to carry out cosmogenic nuclide dating in an attempt to derive the temporal and spatial pattern of fault activity. This may contribute to explore whether earthquake occurrence exhibits any regularity and predict the timing and magnitude of strong earthquakes in the near future. Cosmogenic nuclide ³⁶ Cl dating is widely applied to fault scarp of limestone, and the height of fault scarp can reach as high as 15~20m. It is strongly suggested to make sure the bedrock scarp is exhumed by large earthquake events instead of geomorphic processes, based on field observation, and data acquired by terrestrial LiDAR and ground penetration radar (GPR). In addition, it is better for the fault surface to be straight and fresh with striations indicating recent fault movement. A series of bedrock samples are collected from the footwall in parallel to the direction of fault movement both above and below the colluvium, and each of them is~15cm long,~10cm wide, and~3cm thick. The concentrations of both cosmogenic nuclide ³⁶ Cl and REE-Y determined from these samples vary with the heights in parallel to fault scarps. Accordingly, we identify the times of past large earthquakes, model the profile of ³⁶ Cl concentration to seek the most realistic one, and determine the ages and slip of each earthquake event with the errors. In general, the errors for the numbers, ages, and slips of past earthquake events are ±1-2, no more than ±0.5-1.0ka, and ±0.25m, respectively.