Proceedings of the 12th International INQUA meeting on paleoseismology, active tectonic and archaeoseismology

180 1 2 T H I N T E R N AT I O N A L I N Q U A M E E T I N G O N PA L E O S E I S M O L O G Y , A C T I V E T E C T O N I C S A N D A R C H A E O S E I S M O L O G Y ( PATA ) , O C T O B E R 6 T H - 1 1 T H , 2 0 2 4 , L O S A N D E S , C H I L E PATA Days 2024 K E Y W O R D S Geothermal exploration; Seismicity; Landslides; Dalvik Lineament (1) Department of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. (2) Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. *Email: daf8@hi.is / gregoryp@hi.is Danielle Forester (1) Gregory P. De Pascale (2) PRELIMINARY SEISMIC AND STRUCTURAL CONTROLS OF LATE QUATERNARY LANDSLIDE DISTRIBUTION IN THE DALVIK LINEAMENT, NORTH ICELAND A B S T R A C T Seismicity is a primary driver of post glacial landscape change along Iceland's plate boundary. Seismicity in the Troll Peninsula (Icelandic: Trollaskagi), including several >Mw 5 events (up to Mw 6.3) in the past 100 years that resulted in infrastructure damage and landscape changes, but the faults responsible for these events, which are often also geothermal targets, are poorly known. Field and remotely sensed mapping combined with drone photogrammetry yields important preliminary results i.e. landslide distribution and frequency are correlated to seismicity distribution. Prior analysis suggested that landslide events were related to glacial debuttressing, however our new data show a clear seismic control. These landslides provide insight into the location of sometimes concealed yet active faults (where geomorphic slip rates including slope creep exceed the tectonics rates in addition to abundant moss cover), and that active faults may be the main control on landslide occurrence in the Dalvik Seismic Zone. I N T R O D U C T I O N The interplay between geological structures, thermal gradient, and seismicity plays a fundamental role in the exploration for geothermal resources. Geothermal energy is heat contained within Earth’s crust, and comes from a combination of magmatic, hydrothermal, and tectonic sources. Surface expressions of geothermal resources such as hot springs occur in regions where tectonic structures, i.e. late Tertiary and Quaternary normal faults, are expressed in zones of active volcanism (Grose, 1971).