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Title

Reconstructing 4000 years of mass movement and tsunami history in a deep peri-Alpine lake (Lake Geneva, France-Switzerland)
Authors
Kremer, Katrina
Hilbe, Michael
Simpson, Guy
Decrouy, Laurent
Wildi, Walter
Girardclos, Stéphanie
Published in Sedimentology. 2015, vol. 62, no. 5, p. 1305–1327
Abstract The study of mass movements in lake sediments provides insights into past natural hazards at historic and prehistoric timescales. Sediments from the deep basin of Lake Geneva reveal a succession of six large-scale (volumes of 22 x 10^6 to 250 x 10^6 m^3) mass-transport deposits, associated with five mass movement events within 2600 years (4000 cal BP to 563 AD). The mass-transport deposits result from: (i) lateral slope failures (mass-transport deposit B at 3895 ± 225 cal BP and mass-transport deposits A and C at 3683 ± 128 cal BP); and (ii) Rhône delta collapses (mass-transport deposits D to G dated at 2650 ± 150 cal BP, 2185 ± 85 cal BP, 1920 ± 120 cal BP and 563 AD, respectively). Mass-transport deposits A and C were most probably triggered by an earthquake, whereas the Rhône delta collapses were likely to be due to sediment overload with a rockfall as the external trigger (mass-transport deposit G, the Tauredunum event in 563 AD known from historical records), an earthquake(mass-transport deposit E) or unknown external triggers (mass-transport deposits D and F). Independent of their origin and trigger mechanisms, numerical simulations show that all of these recorded mass-transport deposits are large enough to have generated at least metre-scale tsunamis during mass movement initiation. Since the Tauredunum event in 563 AD, two small-scale (volumes of 1 to 2x10^6 m^3) mass-transport deposits (H and I) are present in the seismic record, both of which are associated with small lateral slope failures. Mass-transport deposits H and I might be related to earthquakes in Lausanne/Geneva (possibly) 1322 AD and Aigle 1584 AD, respectively. The sedimentary record of the deep basin of Lake Geneva, in combination with the historical record, show that during the past 3695 years, at least six tsunamis were generated by mass movements, indicating that the tsunami hazard in the Lake Geneva region should not be neglected, although such events are not frequent with a recurrence time of 0.0016 yr-1.
Keywords Geohazards — Lake sediments — Mass-transport deposits — Tsunamis — Sédiments lacustres — Risques naturels — Lac Léman — Holocène — Holocene
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Article (Published version) (5.9 MB) - document accessible for UNIGE members only Limited access to UNIGE
Supplemental data (1.3 MB) - public document Free access
Other version: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/sed.12190
Structures
Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau
Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement
Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département des sciences de la Terre
Research groups Limnology and Environmental Geology
Limnology and Geomicrobiology
ISE Pôle Sciences
ISE Eau
Projects FNS: 200021-121666
FNS: 200020-146889
Citation
(ISO format) 		KREMER, Katrina et al. Reconstructing 4000 years of mass movement and tsunami history in a deep peri-Alpine lake (Lake Geneva, France-Switzerland). In: Sedimentology, 2015, vol. 62, n° 5, p. 1305–1327. https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:55598

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Deposited on : 2015-04-20

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