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Impact of sea-level rise on earthquake and landslide triggering offshore the Alentejo margin (SW Iberia)

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Abstract

Earthquakes and submarine landslides are recurrent and widespread manifestations of fault activity offshore SW Iberia. The present work tests the effects of sea-level rise on offshore fault systems using Coulomb stress change calculations across the Alentejo margin. Large-scale faults capable of generating large earthquakes and tsunamis in the region, especially NE–SW trending thrusts and WNW–ESE trending dextral strike-slip faults imaged at basement depths, are either blocked or unaffected by flexural effects related to sea-level changes. Large-magnitude earthquakes occurring along these structures may, therefore, be less frequent during periods of sea-level rise. In contrast, sea-level rise promotes shallow fault ruptures within the sedimentary sequence along the continental slope and upper rise within distances of <100 km from the coast. The results suggest that the occurrence of continental slope failures may either increase (if triggered by shallow fault ruptures) or decrease (if triggered by deep fault ruptures) as a result of sea-level rise. Moreover, observations of slope failures affecting the area of the Sines contourite drift highlight the role of sediment properties as preconditioning factors in this region.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through projects CONDRIBER (FCT-PTDC/GEO-GEO/4430/2012) and IDL-FCT-UID/GEO/50019/2013. We thank the crew of R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa and the UTM-CSIC team for their help and assistance during the MOWER cruise. We highly appreciate the constructive comments of an anonymous reviewer and the journal editors, which greatly helped improving an initial version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    M. C. Neves

  2. Instituto Dom Luiz, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    M. C. Neves & C. Roque

  3. EMEPC - Estrutura de Missão para a Extensão da Plataforma Continental, Paço de Arcos, Portugal

    C. Roque

  4. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    K. M. Luttrell

  5. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Málaga, Puerto Pesquero s/n, 29640, Fuengirola, Spain

    J. T. Vázquez

  6. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, CSIC, GMC, P. Marítimo de la Barceloneta 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    B. Alonso

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  1. M. C. Neves
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Correspondence to M. C. Neves.

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Neves, M.C., Roque, C., Luttrell, K.M. et al. Impact of sea-level rise on earthquake and landslide triggering offshore the Alentejo margin (SW Iberia). Geo-Mar Lett 36, 415–424 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-016-0459-1

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