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Repeated palaeoseismic activity of the Ventas de Zafarraya fault (S Spain) and its relation with the 1884 Andalusian earthquake

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Abstract

One of the most destructive historical earthquakes (M ≈6.7) in Spain occurred in 1884 along the normal Ventas de Zafarraya Fault located in the Central Betic Cordilleras. Palaeoseismic and radiocarbon data presented in this study are the first to constrain the timing of the pre-1884 fault history in the last 10 ka. These data yield a recurrence interval of between 2 and 3 ka for major earthquakes, under the assumption of uniform return periods along the normal fault. The Holocene slip rate is estimated to be in the order of 0.35±0.05 mm/year, which is significantly higher than the mean slip rate of 0.17±0.03 mm/year since the Tortonian. Several of the most important deformations and secondary features, such as landslides and liquefaction, are related to strong ground motion and document the Holocene activity of the Ventas de Zafarraya Fault.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to both anonymous reviewers and to the associate editor for helpful and in-depth comments on the paper. The German Science Foundation, DFG-project Re 1361/3-1, and the Spanish CICYT, projects BET2000-1490-C02-01 and REN2001-3378/RIES, REN2001-2418C04-04/RIES, are thanked for financial support. 14C-dating was partly carried out at the Leibniz Labor (Univ. of Kiel).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Geophysik, Universität Hamburg, Bundesstraße 55, Hamburg, Germany

    K. R. Reicherter & S. Reiss

  2. Departamento de Geodinámica, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva, Granada, España

    A. Jabaloy, J. Galindo-Zaldívar, P. Ruano & F. González-Lodeiro

  3. Institut für Bodenkunde, Universität Hamburg, Allende-Platz 1, Hamburg, Germany

    P. Becker-Heidmann

  4. Instituto Andaluz de Geofísica, Universidad de Granada, Granada, España

    J. Morales

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  1. K. R. Reicherter
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Correspondence to K. R. Reicherter.

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Reicherter, K.R., Jabaloy, A., Galindo-Zaldívar, J. et al. Repeated palaeoseismic activity of the Ventas de Zafarraya fault (S Spain) and its relation with the 1884 Andalusian earthquake. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 92, 912–922 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-003-0366-3

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