Castro, Julia, Martin-Rojas, Ivan, Medina-Cascales, Iván, García Tortosa, Francisco Juan, Alfaro García, Pedro, Insua-Arévalo, Juan Miguel
Active faulting in the central Betic Cordillera (Spain): Palaeoseismological constraint of the surface-rupturing history of the Baza Fault (Central Betic Cordillera, Iberian Peninsula)
Tectonophysics. 2018, 736: 15-30. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2018.04.010
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/75494
DOI: 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.04.010
ISSN: 0040-1951 (Print)
Abstract: 
This paper on the Baza Fault provides the first palaeoseismic data from trenches in the central sector of the Betic Cordillera (S Spain), one of the most tectonically active areas of the Iberian Peninsula. With the palaeoseismological data we constructed time-stratigraphic OxCal models that yield probability density functions (PDFs) of individual palaeoseismic event timing. We analysed PDF overlap to quantitatively correlate the walls and site events into a single earthquake chronology. We assembled a surface-rupturing history of the Baza Fault for the last ca. 45,000 years. We postulated six alternative surface rupturing histories including 8–9 fault-wide earthquakes. We calculated fault-wide earthquake recurrence intervals using Monte Carlo. This analysis yielded a 4750–5150 yr recurrence interval. Finally, compared our results with the results from empirical relationships. Our results will provide a basis for future analyses of more of other active normal faults in this region. Moreover, our results will be essential for improving earthquake-probability assessments in Spain, where palaeoseismic data are scarce.
Keywords:Active tectonics, Palaeoseismicity, Recurrence interval, Baza Fault
Elsevier
info:eu-repo/semantics/article