Airborne LiDAR detection of postglacial faults and Pulju moraine in Palojärvi, Finnish Lapland

• Airborne LiDAR was applied to record postglacial faults in Finnish Lapland.
• Several sets of Pulju moraine were found in Palojärvi area.
• LiDAR revealed three new late/postglacial fault scarps.
• Kultima fault eventually was subglacial.
• Pulju moraine is suggested to have been created through seismic impact.

Postglacial faults (PGFs) are indicative of young tectonic activity providing crucial information for nuclear repository studies. Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data revealed three previously unrecognized late- or postglacial faults in northernmost Finnish Lapland. Under the canopies of mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) we also found clusters of the Pulju moraine, typically found on the ice-divide zone of the former Fennoscandian ice sheet (FIS), to be spatially associated with the fault-scarps. Tilt derivative (TDR) filtered LiDAR data revealed the previously unknown Palojärvi fault that, by the NE–SW orientation parallels with the well documented Lainio-Suijavaara PGF in northern Sweden. This suggests that PGFs are more extensive features than previously recognized. Two inclined diamond drill holes verified the fractured system of the Palojärvi fault and revealed clear signs of postglacial reactivation. Two other previously unrecognized PGFs, the W–E trending Paatsikkajoki fault and the SE–NW trending Kultima fault, differ from the Palojärvi faulting in orientation and possibly also with regard to age. The Pulju moraine, a morphological feature showing transitions from shallow (< 2-m-high) circular/arcuate ridges to sinusoidal/anastomosing esker networks was found to be concentrated within 6 km from the Kultima fault-scarp. We advocate that some of the past seismic events took place under the retreating wet-base ice sheet and the increased pore-water pressure triggered the sediment mass flows and formation of the Pulju moraine–esker landscape.