A paleo-seismological study of the Dauki fault at Jaflong, Sylhet, Bangladesh: Historical seismic events and an attempted rupture segmentation model

•A paleo-seismological study was performed at Sylhet, the eastern portion of the Dauki fault.•The seismic event in 9–10th century was identified.•The Dauki fault has ruptured three times in historical time.•The Dauki fault might be divided into four segments of the west, central, east, and easternmost portions.•The 1897 great Indian earthquake might have been caused by the rupture of the central segment.

A paleo-seismological study was conducted at Jaflong, Sylhet, Bangladesh, which is on the eastern part of the Dauki fault. The geomorphology around Jaflong is divided into the Shillong Plateau, the foothills, the lower terraces, and the alluvial plain from north to south. Because the foothills and lower terraces are considered to be uplifted tectonically, an active fault is inferred to the south of the lower terraces. This fault, which branches from the Dauki fault as a foreland migration, is known as the Jaflong fault in this paper. The trench investigation was conducted at the southern edge of the lower terrace. The angular unconformity accompanied by folding, which is thought to be the top of the growth strata, was identified in the trench. An asymmetric anticline with a steep southern limb and gentle northern limb is inferred from the back-tilted lower terrace and the folding of the gravel layer parallel to the lower terrace surface. The timing of the seismic event which formed the folding and unconformity is dated to between AD 840 and 920.The trench investigation at Gabrakhari, on the western part of the Dauki fault, revealed that the Dauki fault ruptured in AD 1548 (Morino et al., 2011). Because the 1897 great Indian earthquake (M ⩾ 8.0; Yeats et al., 1997) was caused by the rupture of the Dauki fault (Oldham, 1899), it is clear that the Dauki fault has ruptured three times in the past one thousand years. The timing of these seismic events coincides with that of the paleo-liquefactions confirmed on the Shillong Plateau. It is essential for the paleo-seismological study of the Dauki fault to determine the surface ruptures of the 1897 earthquake. The Dauki fault might be divided into four rupture segments, the western, central, eastern, and easternmost segments. The eastern and western segments ruptured in AD 840–920 and in 1548, respectively. The 1897 earthquake might have been caused by the rupture of the central segment.