Earthquake Response Cores

2016.11.19
Earthquake Response Cores
We think that we just cored a turbidite that was deposited by a turbidity current triggered by the M 7.8 NZ earthquake. We will need to do some radiometric analyses (7Be, 234Th, 210Pb, 137Cs) to test this hypothesis. More later. Attached are some photos. One is a slab collected from a multi-core, up is to the right. There is a dark sandy turbidite that overlies a dark grey mud turbidite. We hypothesize that the dark sandy turbidite is "yesterdays" turbidite. This was collected in a channel setting. The other photo shows a multi core with an orange layer. We hypothesize that this is the surficial oxidized layer that has a muddy turbidite deposited above it. This is from a terrace site, which would have been an over-levee flow, with lower energy (why the ox layer is present; it was eroded in the channel site). The third photo shows the slice of sediment at the top of the ox layer.
There is lots of life here, now dead. Two weeks ago, these organisms were living. Now they are not.