Altres ajuts: ESF-EUROMARGINS SWIM project (01-LEG-EMA09F)

Textural, mineralogical and geochemical analyses of near-surface sediments from six different stations offshore SW Iberian Peninsula revealed the presence of thin detrital intervals corresponding to very fine-grained turbidites. Precise dating of the two most recent sedimentary layers based on ²¹⁰ Pb and ¹³⁷ Cs geochronology provides ages of 1971 ± 3 AD and 1908 ± 8 AD. These ages correspond to high-magnitude historical and instrumental earthquakes that occurred in the region: the 1969 Horseshoe Earthquake (Mw 8.0) and the 1909 Benavente Earthquake (Mw 6.0). Such a good correlation between turbidites and high-magnitude (Mw > 6) historical and instrumental seismic events suggests that the record of mass transport deposits can also be used as a paleoseismic indicator in low-convergence margins.