Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T14:58:29.775Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - Soft-Sediment Deformation Structures in the Eastern Baltic Region

Implication in Seismicity and Glacially Triggered Faulting

from Part IV - Glacially Triggered Faulting at the Edge and in the Periphery of the Fennoscandian Shield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

By
Albertas Bitinas ,
Jurga Lazauskienė  and
Małgorzata (Gosia) Pisarska-Jamroży
Edited by
Holger Steffen ,
Odleiv Olesen  and
Raimo Sutinen
Holger Steffen
Affiliation:
Lantmäteriet, Sweden
Odleiv Olesen
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Norway
Raimo Sutinen
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Finland
Get access

Summary

This section presents a detailed overview of soft-sediment deformation structures of possibly seismic origin in the Eastern Baltic Region. Recent studies of soft-sediment deformation structures discovered in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and the Kaliningrad District of Russia demonstrated that their formation could have been caused by fluidization and liquefaction of sediments possibly triggered by palaeoearthquakes; thus, they could be interpreted as seismites. An identification of corresponding seismogenic faults is complicated though due to the rather small scale of the tectonic dislocations in the intracratonic area with up to 2.5-km thick Phanerozoic sedimentary cover. Nevertheless, a part of soft-sediment deformation structures can be interpreted as seismites and attributed to the seismic events triggered by glacial isostatic adjustment of the lithosphere during the Last (Weichselian) glacial advance and subsequent deglaciation.

Keywords

Soft-Sediment Deformation StructuresPalaeoearthquakesSeismitesGlacial Isostatic AdjustmentEstoniaLithuaniaLatviaBelarusKaliningradLandslide
Type
Chapter
Information
Glacially-Triggered Faulting , pp. 320 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belzyt, S., Nartišs, M., Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Woronko, B. and Bitinas, A. (2018a). Large-scale glaciotectonically-deformed Pleistocene sediments with deformed layers sandwiched between undeformed layers, Baltmuiža site, Western Latvia. In M. Pisarska-Jamroży and A. Bitinas, eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, pp. 38–42.Google Scholar
Belzyt, S., Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Bitinas, A., Damušytė, A. and Woronko, B. (2018b). Soft-sediment deformation structures in the Pleistocene meandering-river floodplain (Slinkis Outcrop, Central Lithuania). In Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Bitinas, A., eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, pp. 16–20.Google Scholar
Belzyt, S., Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Bitinas, A. et al. (2021). Repetitive Late Pleistocene soft-sediment deformation by seismicity-induced liquefaction in north-western Lithuania. Sedimentology, doi.org/10.1111/sed.12883.Google Scholar
Bitinas, A. (2012). Implications of the paleoseismicity of the Eastern Baltic Sea Region. Quaternary International, 52, 279–280, doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.07.230.Google Scholar
Bitinas, A. and Lazauskienė, J. (2011). Implications of palaeoseismic events based on the analysis of the structures of the Quaternary deposits. Baltica, 24, 127–130 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
Bitinas, A. and Damušytė, A. (2018). Ventės Ragas outcrop and Juodikiai quarry: soft-sediment deformation structures of enigmatic genesis in the Lithuanian Maritime Region. In Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Bitinas, A., eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic phenomena in the South-eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, 26–30.Google Scholar
Boborikin, A. M., Avotinia, I. Y., Yemelianov, A. P., Sildvee, A. and Suveizdis, P. (1993). Catalogue of historical earthquakes of Belarus and the Baltic Region. Seismological Report of Seismic Stations of Minsk–Pleshchenitsi and Naroch for 1988. Minsk, pp. 126–137.Google Scholar
Brandes, C., Steffen, H., Steffen, R. and Wu, P. (2015). Intraplate seismicity in northern central Europe is induced by the last glaciation. Geology, 43, 611–614, doi.org/10.1130/G36710.1.Google Scholar
Brandes, C., Steffen, H., Sandersen, P. B. E., Wu, P. and Winsemann, J. (2018). Glacially induced faulting along the NW segment of the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, northern Denmark: implications for neotectonics and Lateglacial fault-bound basin formation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 189, 149–168, doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.03.036.Google Scholar
Damušytė, A. and Bitinas, A. (2018). Giruliai mega landslide (Litorina Sea palaeo cliff): possible relict of palaeoseismic event. In Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Bitinas, A., eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, p. 31.Google Scholar
Dodonov, A. E., Namestnikov, Y. G. and Jakushova, A. F. (1976). Noveyshaya tektonika yugo-vostochnoy chasti Baltiyskoy sinekliz [The Latest Tectonics of the South-eastern Part of the Baltic Syneclise]. Moscow University Press, Moscow (in Russian).Google Scholar
Druzhinina, O., Bitinas, A., Molodkov, A. and Kolesnik, T. (2017). Palaeoseismic deformations in the Eastern Baltic region (Kaliningrad District of Russia). Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences, 66, 119–129, doi.org/10.3176/earth.2017.09.Google Scholar
Ekström, G., Nettles, M. and Abers, G. A. (2003). Glacial earthquake. Science, 302, 622–624, doi.org/10.1126/science.1088057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekström, G., Nettles, M. and Tsai, V. C. (2006). Seasonality and increasing frequency of Greenland glacial earthquakes. Science, 311, 1756–1758, 10.1126/science.1122112.Google Scholar
Gregersen, S. and Basham, P. V. (1989). Earthquakes at North Atlantic Margins: Neotectonics and Postglacial Rebound. NATO ASI Series, Vol. 266. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2311-9.Google Scholar
Gregersen, S., Wiejacz, P., Dębski, W. et al. (2007). The exceptional earthquakes in Kaliningrad district, Russia on September 21, 2004. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 164, 63–74, doi.org/10.1016/j.pepi.2007.06.005.Google Scholar
Grube, A. (2019). Palaeoseismic structures in Quaternary sediments of Hamburg (NW Germany), earthquake evidence during the younger Weichselian and Holocene. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 108(3), 845–861, doi.org/10.1007/s00531-019-01681-2.Google Scholar
Grünthal, G. and GSHAP Region 3 Working Group (1999). Seismic hazard assessment for Central, North and Northwest Europe: GSHAP Region 3. Annali di Geofisica, 42(6), 999–1011, doi.org/10.4401/ag-3783.Google Scholar
Grünthal, G. and Riedel, P. (2007). Zwei angebliche Erdbeben in den Jahren 1303 und 1328 im heutigen Raum Kaliningrad [Two supposed earthquakes in 1303 and 1328 in what is now Kaliningrad region]. Zeitschrift für Geologische Wissenschaften, 35(3), 157–163.Google Scholar
Grünthal, G. and Stromeyer, D. (1995). Rezentes Spannungsfeld und Seismizitat des baltischen Raumes und angrenzender Gebiete – ein Ausdruck aktueller geodynamischer Prozesse [Recent stress field and seismicity of the Baltic region and adjacent areas – an expression of current geodynamic processes]. Brandenburgische Geowissenschaftliche Beitrage, 2, 69–76.Google Scholar
Jakobsson, M., O’Regan, G. M., Greenwood, S. L. et al. (2016). Postglacial tectonic structures and mass wasting in Lake Vättern, southern Sweden. Geological Society Memoir, 46(1), 119–120, doi.org/10.1144/M46.58.Google Scholar
Karabanov, A. K. and Yelovicheva, Ya. K. (1997). Geological objects of excursions. “Zaslavl” quarry. In Excursion Guidebook ‘Quaternary Deposits and Neotectonics in the Area of Pleistocene Glaciations’, May 12–16, 1997. Minsk, pp. 15–18.Google Scholar
Krievāns, M. (2015). Formation of the Hydrographic Network in the Lower Gauja Spillway Valley Adjoining Area during the Late Weichselian Deglacial. Summary of PhD thesis, University of Latvia, Riga.Google Scholar
Lazauskienė, J., Stephenson, R. A, Šliaupa, S. and van Wees, J.-D. (2002). 3D flexural model of the Silurian Baltic Basin. Tectonophysics, 346, 115–135, 10.1016/S0040-1951(01)00231-1.Google Scholar
Lazauskienė, J., Pačėsa, A. and Satkūnas, J. (2012). Seismotectonic and seismic hazard maps of Lithuania – recent implications of intracratonic seismicity in the Eastern Baltic Region. Geologija, 54, 1–9, doi.org/10.6001/geologija.v54i1.2364.Google Scholar
Lukševičs, E., Stinkulis, G., Mūrnieks, A. and Popovs, K. (2012). Geological evolution of the Baltic Artesian Basin. In Delina, A., ed., Highlights of Groundwater Research in the Baltic Artesian Basin. University of Latvia, Riga, pp. 7–53.Google Scholar
Mattila, J., Ojala, A. E. K. et al.(2019). Evidence of multiple slip events on postglacial faults in northern Fennoscandia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 215, 242–252, doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.05.022.Google Scholar
Mörner, N. A. (2005). An interpretation and catalogue of Paleoseismicity in Sweden. Tectonophysics, 408, 265–307, doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2005.05.039.Google Scholar
Mörner, N. A. (2008). Tsunami events within Baltic. Polish Geological Institute Special Papers, 23, 71–76.Google Scholar
Nartišs, M. (2014). Ice Meltwater Lakes of Northern Vidzeme and Middle Gauja Lowlands during the Late Weichselian Deglaciation. Summary of PhD thesis, University of Latvia, Riga.Google Scholar
Nartišs, M., Woronko, B., Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Belzyt, S. and Bitinas, A. (2018). Injection structures and load casts in lagoon sediments (Sārnate outcrop, W Latvia). In Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Bitinas, A., eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, pp. 32–37.Google Scholar
Nikonov, A. A. (2005). Following the Kaliningrad Earthquake. Priroda, 3, 47–53.Google Scholar
Nikonov, A. A. (2011). Surface disturbances connected with the Kaliningrad earthquake of September 21, 2004, and their correlation with macroseismic scales. Seismic Instruments, 47, 148–157, doi.org/10.3103/S074792391102006X.Google Scholar
Nikulin, V. (2011). Assessment of the seismic hazard in Latvia. Version of 2007 year. Material Science and Applied Chemistry, 24, 110–115.Google Scholar
Pačėsa, A. and Šliaupa, S. (2011). Seismic activity and seismic catalogue of the East Baltic region. Geologija, 53(3), 134–146, doi.org/10.6001/geologija.v53i3.1894.Google Scholar
Pačėsa, A., Šliaupa, S. and Satkūnas, J. (2005). Recent earthquake activity in the Baltic region and seismological monitoring in Lithuania. Geologija, 50, 8–18 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
Paškevičius, J. (1997). The Geology of the Baltic Republics. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Vilnius.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Bitinas, A. (2018). Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-Eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Belzyt, S. (2019). Is there any relationship between occurrence of soft-sediment deformation structures caused by Pleistocene seismicity and induced by glaciotectonics? ICHEPS-19 7th International Colloquium on Historical Earthquakes & Paleoseismology Studies, 4–6 November 2019, Barcelona, 32.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Belzyt, S., Börner, A. et al. (2018a). Evidence from seismites for glacio-isostatically induced crustal faulting in front of an advancing land-ice mass (Rügen Island, SW Baltic Sea). Tectonophysics, 745, 338–348, doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2018.08.004.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Belzyt, S., Bitinas, A. et al. (2018b). A glaciolacustrine succession (Dyburiai outcrop, NW Lithuania) with numerous deformed layers sandwiched between undeformed layers. In M. Pisarska-Jamroży and A. Bitinas, eds., Soft-sediment Deformation Structures and Palaeoseismic Phenomena in the South-Eastern Baltic Region. Excursion Guide of International Palaeoseismological Field Workshop, 17–21 September 2018. Lithuanian Geological Survey, Lithuanian Geological Society, Vilnius, pp. 43–48.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Woźniak, P. P. (2019). Debris flow and glacioisostatic-induced soft-sediment deformation structures in a Pleistocene glaciolacustrine fan: the southern Baltic Sea coast, Poland. Geomorphology, 326, 225–238, doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.01.015.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Belzyt, S, Börner, A. et al. (2019a). The sea cliff at Dwasieden: soft-sediment deformation structures triggered by glacial isostatic adjustment in front of the advancing Scandinavian Ice Sheet. DEUQUA Special Publications, 2, 61–67, doi.org/10.5194/deuquasp-2-1-2019.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M., van Loon, A. J., Roman, M. and Mleczak, M. (2019b). Enigmatic gravity-flow deposits at Ujście (western Poland), triggered by earthquakes (as evidenced by seismites) caused by Saalian glacioisostatic crustal rebound. Geomorphology, 326, 239–251, doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.01.010.Google Scholar
Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Belzyt, S., Bitinas, A., Jusienė, A. and Woronko, B. (2019c). Seismic shocks, periglacial conditions and glaciotectonics as causes of the deformation of a Pleistocene meandering river succession in central Lithuania. Baltica, 32, 63–77, doi.org/10.5200/baltica.2019.1.6.Google Scholar
Podolskiy, E. A. and Walter, F. (2016). Cryoseismology. Reviews of Geophysics, 54, 708–758, doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000526.Google Scholar
Popovs, K., Saks, T. and Jātnieks, J. (2015). A comprehensive approach to the 3D geological modelling of sedimentary basins: example of Latvia, the central part of the Baltic Basin. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences, 64, 173–188.Google Scholar
Rogozhin, E. A., Ovsyuchenko, A. N., Novikov, S. S. and Marakhanov, A. V. (2010). Active tectonic of the 21 September 2004 Kaliningrad earthquake’s region. Voprosy inzhinernoj seismologii, 37(3), 5–20 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Rogozhin, E. A., Ovsyuchenko, A. N., Gorbatikov, A. V. et al. (2014). Detal’naya otsenka seysmicheskoy opasnosti territorii Kaliningrada i tektonicheskiy analiz zemletryaseniy 2004 g [Detailed seismic hazard assessment of the Kaliningrad territory and the tectonic position of the earthquakes occurred in 2004]. Inzhinernyje iziskanija, 12, 26–38 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Raukas, A. and Teedumäe, A. (1997). Geology and Mineral Resources of Estonia. Estonian Academy Publishers, Tallinn.Google Scholar
Rosentau, A., Harff, J., Oja, T. and Meyer, M. (2012). Postglacial rebound and relative sea level changes in the Baltic Sea since the Litorina transgression. Baltica, 25, 113–120, doi.org/10.5200/baltica.2012.25.11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saulīte, A., Kalnina, L. Stinkulis, G. and Cerina, A. (2007). A new data from the outcrop at the coastal cliff of the Baltic Sea near to Sarnate. Proceedings of the Field Symposium ‘The Quaternary of Western Lithuania: From the Pleistocene Glaciations to the Evolution of the Baltic Sea’. May 27–June 02, 2007, Plateliai, Lithuania, pp. 73–74.Google Scholar
Sharov, N. V., Malovichko, A. A. and Shukin, Yu. K. (2007). Earthquakes and Microseismicity of East European Platform – Recent Geodynamic Approach. Book 1 Earthquakes. KarNC RAN, Petrozavodsk (in Russian).Google Scholar
Šliaupa, S. (2003). Geodynamic Evolution of the Baltic Sedimentary Basin. Habilitation thesis. Institute of Geology, Vilnius.Google Scholar
Šliaupa, S. and Zakarevičius, A. (2000). Recent Stress Pattern in the Eastern Part of the Baltic Basin, Lithuania, Joint Meeting of EUROPROBE (TESZ) and PACE Projects, Zakopane. Workshop Abstracts Volume, Warsaw, 79 pp.Google Scholar
Steffen, H., Steffen, R. and Tarasov, L. (2019). Modelling of glacially-induced stress changes in Latvia, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad District of Russia. Baltica, 32, 78–90, doi.org/10.5200/baltica.2019.1.7.Google Scholar
van Loon, A. J., Pisarska-Jamroży, M., Nartišs, M. and Krievâns, M. (2016). Seismites resulting from high-frequency, high-magnitude earthquakes in Latvia caused by Late Glacial glacio-isostatic uplift. Journal of Palaeogeography, 5, 363–380, doi.org/10.1016/j.jop.2016.05.002.Google Scholar
van Loon, A. J., Pisarska-Jamroży, M. and Woronko, B. (2020). Sedimentological distinction in glacigenic sediments between load casts induced by periglacial processes from those induced by seismic shocks. Geological Quarterly, 64, 626–640, doi.org/10.7306/gq.1546.Google Scholar
Yelovicheva, Ya. K. and Drozd, Ye. N. (2005). Zaslavl’ – opornyy razrez muravinskogo mezhlednikov’ya Belarusi. [Zaslavlj – the main section of the Murava interglacial in Belarus]. Monografiya deponirovannyye v BelISA, Belarusian State University, Minsk, 81 pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×