TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantitative analysis of seismogenic shear-induced turbulence in lake sediments
AU - Wetzler, Nadav
AU - Marco, Shmuel
AU - Heifetz, Eyal
PY - 2010/4
Y1 - 2010/4
N2 - Spectacular deformations observed in lake sediments in an earthquake prone region (Lisan Formation, pre-Dead Sea lake) appear in phases of laminar, moderate folds, billow-like asymmetric folds, coherent vortices, and turbulent chaotic structures. Power spectral analysis of the deformation indicates that the geometry robustly obeys a power-law of -1.89, similar to the measured value of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) turbulence in other environments. Numerical simulations are performed using properties of the layer materials based on measure-ments of the modern Dead Sea sediments, which are a reasonable analogue of Lake Lisan. The simulations show that for a given induced shear, the smaller the thickness of the layers, the greater is the turbulent deformation. This is due to the fact that although the effective viscosity increases (the Reynolds number decreases) the bulk Richardson number becomes smaller with decrease in the layer thickness. The latter represents the ratio between the gravitational potential energy of the stably strati ed sediments and the shear energy generated by the earthquake. Therefore, for thin layers, the shear energy density is larger and the KH instability mechanism becomes more ef cient. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) is related to the seismogenic shear established during the earthquake. Hence, a link is made between the observed thickness and geometry of a deformed layer with its causative earthquake's PGA.
AB - Spectacular deformations observed in lake sediments in an earthquake prone region (Lisan Formation, pre-Dead Sea lake) appear in phases of laminar, moderate folds, billow-like asymmetric folds, coherent vortices, and turbulent chaotic structures. Power spectral analysis of the deformation indicates that the geometry robustly obeys a power-law of -1.89, similar to the measured value of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) turbulence in other environments. Numerical simulations are performed using properties of the layer materials based on measure-ments of the modern Dead Sea sediments, which are a reasonable analogue of Lake Lisan. The simulations show that for a given induced shear, the smaller the thickness of the layers, the greater is the turbulent deformation. This is due to the fact that although the effective viscosity increases (the Reynolds number decreases) the bulk Richardson number becomes smaller with decrease in the layer thickness. The latter represents the ratio between the gravitational potential energy of the stably strati ed sediments and the shear energy generated by the earthquake. Therefore, for thin layers, the shear energy density is larger and the KH instability mechanism becomes more ef cient. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) is related to the seismogenic shear established during the earthquake. Hence, a link is made between the observed thickness and geometry of a deformed layer with its causative earthquake's PGA.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954015263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1130/G30685.1
DO - 10.1130/G30685.1
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AN - SCOPUS:77954015263
SN - 0091-7613
VL - 38
SP - 303
EP - 306
JO - Geology
JF - Geology
IS - 4
ER -