Comments on: Dead Sea sediments and some impressive seismites

By: Coastal Dead Sea Views from the Israeli Side | Jordan and Jerusalem: A Hales Group Expedition

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:47:39 +0000

[...] dropping about a meter a year, which is extraordinary. This reduction in base level also produces incredible erosional gullies as water from flashfloods cuts through the newly-exposed unconsolidated lake sediments with [...]

By: Sequence Stratigraphy and other topics (May 1 & 3) | Sedimentology & Stratigraphy at Wooster

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:33:29 +0000

[...] is an insight into the tectonic history of the region. Melissa Torma and I saw such a record of seismites in Dead Sea sediments last [...]

By: Eyes, brains and thumbs: the wonders of primate evolution (April 30 – May 1) | History of Life course at The College of Wooster

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:21:28 +0000

[...] is an insight into the tectonic history of the region. Melissa Torma and I saw such a record of seismites in Dead Sea sediments last [...]

By: Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week | Highly Allochthonous

Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week | Highly Allochthonous — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:36:46 +0000

[...] Yet more evidence that we should organise a field trip to the Dead Sea post-haste: fabulous sedimentary structures. Impressive incision rate too! Dead Sea sediments and some impressive seismites (woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/) [...]

By: Diana

Diana — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:18:09 +0000

It is hard to believe that those canyons are so young! I have to make time to go take a look.
I am so enjoying this blog! Wish I could take you on one of our hikes so you could explain the geology to us. Some of the formations we see are hard to understand to say the least.
Maybe on your next trip.

By: William Burris

William Burris — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:08:50 +0000

These are some pretty spectacular photos.

By: Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:36:48 +0000

Thanks, Brian, and very good point. We do seem to be lucky in this case that there are such long historical records that correlations could be made between known earthquakes and the dated deformations. Without them it becomes much more problematic.

By: Brian Romans

Brian Romans — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:00:56 +0000

Fabulous photos! I’d love to see in person someday.

I’m going to put my nit-picky professor hat on just for a moment. The term ‘seismite’ is very interpretive. This type of soft-sediment deformation can occur in a variety of depositional environments in the absence of an external trigger such an earthquake. All that’s needed is rapid deposition and a density contrast.

I realize that, in this case, there is good chronology and paleoseismic records to correlate to, so the interpretation is likely strong (and very cool!). But, one could end up making some erroneous leaps of inference if they went somewhere else, documented soft-sediment deformation, and automatically conclude it must’ve been triggered by a seismic event.

By: Meagen

Meagen — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:45:27 +0000

Wow! Impressive (and beautiful) sedimentary structures.

By: Peter Pozefsky

Peter Pozefsky — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:00:31 +0000

Strange how disaster, in this case environmental, can be good for scholars. It creates opportunities to see things you would never otherwise see. I felt the same way observing the fall of the USSR. As Soviet society fell apart, you could see things that weren’t previously visible and aren’t necessarily visible in more stable communities. Does this create an ethical dilemma for scholars?