Investigation of suspected Holocene fault scarp near Montréal, Québec: The first paleoseismic trench in eastern Canada

Authors

  • Aube Gourdeau Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Qc, Canada H3A 0E8
  • Veronica B. Prush Earth and Environmental Science Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA 87801 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5981-4576
  • Christie D. Rowe Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Qc, Canada H3A 0E8 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9208-3960
  • Claudine Nackers Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering Department, Polytechnique Montreal, Montréal, Qc, Canada H3T 1J4
  • Hannah Mark Department of Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA 02543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1722-3759
  • Isabel Morris Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM, USA 87801 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7808-0141
  • Philippe Rosset Departement of Civil Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Qc, Canada, H3A 0C3 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7596-9196
  • Michel Lamothe Département des Sciences de la terre et de l'atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Qc, Canada, H2X 3Y7
  • Luc Chouinard Departement of Civil Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Qc, Canada, H3A 0C3
  • Matthew S. Tarling Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Qc, Canada H3A 0E8 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9235-5348

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i2.1179

Keywords:

neotectonics, active faults, earthquake hazard, Remote Sensing

Abstract

Québec has experienced historical damaging earthquakes in several seismic zones (e.g. 1732 M5.8 Montréal, 1663 M7 Charlevoix, 1935 M6.2 Témiscamingue). Despite a high seismicity rate, no surface-rupturing faults have been discovered due to a combination of dense vegetation cover, recent glaciation, sparse earthquake records, and low regional strain rates. We manually searched lidar-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) of the region to search for potential post-glacial surface-rupturing faults across southern Québec and identified a scarp ~50km north of Montréal. We performed three geophysical surveys (ground penetrating radar, depth estimates from ambient seismic noise, and refraction seismology) that revealed a buried scarp, confirmed with a <1 m-deep hand-dug test pit. These observations convinced us to excavate the first paleoseismic trench in Québec to test for the presence of a surface-rupturing fault in July 2023. We found a glacial diamict containing no signs of syn- or post-glacial deformation. In this paper, we present the observations that led to the identification of a scarp and hypothesized faulting. We highlight the importance of trenching to confirm recent fault scarps in challenging environments. We hope our study can be used to optimize future paleoseismic research in the province of Québec and similar intracratonic glaciated landscapes.

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Gourdeau, A., B. Prush, V., D. Rowe, C., Nackers, C., Mark, H., Morris, I., Rosset, P., Lamothe, M., Chouinard, L., & Tarling, M. S. (2024). Investigation of suspected Holocene fault scarp near Montréal, Québec: The first paleoseismic trench in eastern Canada. Seismica, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i2.1179

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