2022 CSDMS meeting-004
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Comparing sedimentological facies with modeled sediment transport pathways in fault scarp environments
Harrison Gray,
US Geological Survey Lakewood Colorado, United States. hgray@usgs.gov
The development of colluvial wedges at the base of fault scarps following normal-faulting earthquakes serves as a sedimentary record of paleoearthquakes and is thus crucial in assessing seismic hazard. Although there is a large body of observations of colluvial wedge development, connecting this knowledge to the physics of sediment transport can open new frontiers in our understanding. Here, I present a cellular automata model of fault scarp and colluvial wedge evolution built using CelllabCTS and the GrainHill sediment physics from Landlab. The model appears to accurately reflect the development of real fault scarps. When one analyzes the model results, one may note interesting groupings of cells with similar sediment transport histories as the fault scarp evolves. These groupings appear to match real world sedimentological facies, such as 'debris' and 'wash' facies, which brings up an interesting question of how best one can compare model results with geological data. I discuss some approaches and quandaries and how one may go about about translating modeling concepts and language into field concepts and language and vice versa.
