Fine-grained sediments down-sagging into coarse-grained substrate: A new category of soft-sediment deformation structures and their paleoseismological implications

This study investigates a novel type of soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS), here termed “down-sagging sediments”, characterized by the downward penetration of less dense sediments into denser sediments. This type of SSDS was identified within fluvial sedimentary successions excavated at the epicentral region of the 2017 Pohang Earthquake and two trench sites (Inbo and Yanggok) in the Korean Peninsula. This study investigated the donw sagging sediments to unravel the morphological characteristics and forming-processes together with their potential as paleoseismological indicators. Down-sagging sediments developed along boundaries between overlying sandy mud and underlying sand (Pohang and Yanggok) or overlying mud and underlying sandy mud (Inbo). These down-sagging sediments show two main varieties: (1) vertically connected bodies maintaining physical continuity with overlying fine-grained sediments and (2) detached fine-grained bodies enveloped by underlying sand or sandy mud. Vertically connected bodies formed through the passive downward penetration of overlying less dense mud into void space created by upward expelled sediments via fluidization. Subsequent disintegration of the vertically connected down-sagging mud by fluidized sediments is responsible for the formation of the detached down-sagging sediments. Although the present study interpreted these structures to have been formed by seismic shaking, they can potentially form at any sediment interface where fluidization is the dominant deformation mechanism. Nevertheless, at the epicentral region of the 2017 Pohang Earthquake where >600 sand blows formed on alluvial plains following the earthquake, the systematic vertical zonation–progressing from upper connected down-sagging sediments with detached ones having highly irregular margins to lower detached down-sagging sediments with smooth margins–may have been formed by two sequential processes: 1) down-sagging and subsequent disintegration during the mainshock, followed by 2) frictional abrasion of the disintegrated down-sagging sediments within underlying re-liquefied sand possibly as a result of forward and backward motions during aftershocks. This sequential development pattern may represent seismic events characterized by mainshock followed by aftershocks, suggesting their potential utility as paleoseismological indicators.