Reproduction of the sedimentary disturbance phenomenon of the Diexi ancient landslide-dammed lake under earthquake

Valuable geological and environmental information can be obtained from the 200 m thick lacustrine sediments in the Diexi lake (an ancient landslide-dammed lake) of the Minjiang River. The shaking table test method was employed to study the disturbance phenomena which occurred in the Diexi lake sediments. The results show that the disturbance phenomena were caused by liquefaction-induced flows in the unconsolidated lacustrine sediments, due to triggering by earthquakes. The deformations only occurred in unconsolidated sediment layers and not in consolidated layers. This means that a consolidated layer cannot be liquefied and disturbed again by an earthquake for a second time. The disturbance on one layer corresponds to only one earthquake. The temporal occurrence of earthquakes could be determined by disturbance layers generated at different ages. In total, 10 disturbed layers were found in the lacustrine sediments of the Diexi lake. The experiments showed that there were more than 10 earthquakes between 30 ka B.P. and 15 ka B.P. in the Diexi lake area based on the dating of the disturbed sediment layers.