Controls on space–time distribution of soft-sediment deformation structures: Applying palaeomagnetic dating to approach the apparent recurrence period of paleoseisms at the Concud Fault (eastern Spain)

This work describes soft-sediment deformation structures (clastic dykes, load structures, diapirs, slumps, nodulizations or mudcracks) identified in three sections (Concud, Ramblillas and Masada Cociero) in the Iberian Range, Spain. These sections were logged from boreholes and outcrops in Upper Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene deposits of the Teruel-Concud Residual Basin, close to de Concud normal fault. Timing of the succession and hence of seismic and non-seismic SSDSs, covering a time span between ~ 3.6 and ~ 1.9 Ma, has been constrained from previous biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic information, then substantially refined from a new magnetostratigraphic study at Masada Cociero profile. Non-seismic SSDSs are relatively well-correlated between sections, while seismic ones are poorly correlated except for several clusters of structures. Between 29 and 35 seismic deformed levels have been computed for the overall stratigraphic succession. Factors controlling the lateral and vertical distribution of SSDSs are their seismic or non-seismic origin, the distance to the seismogenic source (Concud Fault), the sedimentary facies involved in deformation and the observation conditions (borehole core vs. natural outcrop). In the overall stratigraphic section, seismites show an apparent recurrence period of 56 to 108 ka. Clustering of seismic SSDSs levels within a 91-ka-long interval records a period of high paleoseismic activity with an apparent recurrence time of 4.8 to 6.1 ka, associated with increasing sedimentation rate and fault activity. Such activity pattern of the Concud Fault for the Late Pliocene-Early Pliocene, with alternating periods of faster and slower slip, is similar to that for the most recent Quaternary (last ca. 74 ka BP). Concerning the research methods, time occurrence patterns recognized for peaks of paleoseismic activity from SSDSs in boreholes are similar to those inferred from primary evidence in trenches. Consequently, apparent recurrence periods calculated from SSDS inventories collected in borehole logs close to seismogenic faults are comparable to actual recurrence times of large paleoearthquakes.