Search Results (3)

We applied an interdisciplinary approach to analyze the late Quaternary activity of the Sava Fault in the Slovenian Southern Alps. The Sava Fault is an active strike-slip fault, and part of the Periadriatic Fault System that accommodated the convergence of Adria and Europe. It is one of the longest faults in the Southern Alps. Using high-resolution digital elevation models from lidar and photogrammetric surveys, we were able to overcome the challenges of assessing fault activity in a region with intense surface processes, dense vegetation, and relatively low fault slip rates. By integrating remote sensing analysis, geomorphological mapping, structural geological investigations, and near-surface geophysics (electrical resistivity tomography and ground penetrating radar), we were able to find subtle geomorphological indicators, detect near-surface deformation, and show distributed surface deformation and a complex fault pattern. Using optically stimulated luminescence dating, we tentatively estimated a slip rate of 1.8 ± 0.4 mm/a for the last 27 ka, which exceeds previous estimates and suggests temporal variability in fault behavior. Our study highlights the importance of modern high-resolution remote sensing techniques and interdisciplinary approaches in detecting tectonic deformation in relatively low-strain rate environments with intense surface processes. We show that slip rates can vary significantly depending on the studied time window. This is a critical piece of information since slip rates are a key input parameter for seismic hazard studies. Full article

Faut gouge forms at the core of the fault as the result of a slip in the upper brittle crust. Therefore, the deformation mechanisms and conditions under which the fault gouge was formed can document the stages of fault movement in the crust. We carried out a microstructural analysis on a fault gouge from a hanging-wall branch fault of the Simplon Fault Zone, a major low-angle normal fault in the European Alps. We use thin-section analysis, together with backscattered electron imaging and X-ray diffractometry (XRD), to show that a multistage history from ductile to brittle deformation within the fault gouge. We argue that this multistage deformation history is the result of continuous exhumation history from high to low temperature, along the Simplon Fault Zone. Because of the predominance of pressure solution and veining, we associated a large part of the deformation in the fault gouge with viscous-frictional behaviour that occurred at the brittle-ductile transition. Phyllosilicates and graphite likely caused fault lubrication that we suggested played a role in localizing slip along this major low-angle normal fault. Full article

Early European plucked instruments have recently experienced a great revival, but a few aspects remain unknown (e.g., the gauge of gut strings). Here we report, for the first time, that the electron spin resonance (ESR) signal intensity of oxidized iron, Fe(III), from gut strings at g = 2 increases linearly with age within a few hundred years. The signal increase in the remaining old strings on early instruments can be used to judge if they are as old as or younger than the instrument. Obtaining the authenticity information of gut strings contributes to the revival of the old instruments and the music. Full article