Paleoseismology is the scientific discipline that investigates prehistoric and pre-instrumental earthquakes through geological records, primarily using stratigraphic, geomorphic, and structural evidence preserved in sediments and rocks. It relies on trenching across active or suspected faults, dating displaced or deformed strata (e.g., by radiocarbon, luminescence, or dendrochronology), and analyzing offset geomorphic markers to reconstruct the timing, location, magnitude, and recurrence intervals of past seismic events. These data constrain long-term fault slip rates, characterize earthquake recurrence behavior, improve seismic hazard assessments, and test models of fault interaction and earthquake cycle processes beyond the limited span of historical and instrumental records.
Sediment cores drawn from four lakes in Guatemala record the distinct direction that ground shaking traveled during a 1976 magnitude 7.5 earthquake that devastated the country, according to researchers at the Seismological ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 18, 2025
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Identifying long-term seismic activity patterns is crucial for understanding how fault systems evolve, as well as for estimating the probability of future earthquakes. But seismic records date back only hundreds of years—1,000 ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2025
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