Identification of faulting events based on radiocarbon ages of continuous black soil along active fault in trench wall

Yasue, Kenichi; Hirouchi, Daisuke*; Kokubu, Yoko   ; Matsubara, Akihiro; Furusawa, Akira*

This study proposes the exact identification method of faulting events. Radiocarbon ages of the black soil collected continuously from lower to upper part clarify the timing of faulting events. We sampled the black soil without space from the excavated trench wall of the active fault. The soil ages in footwall varied from 9,500 to 2,000 years ago with depth. The soil deposited at approximately a constant rate. However, there are partially the anomalous ages. The anomalies are probably caused by fault displacements, which means the collapse of hanging wall with old soil and the making of depression at the footwall side. The anomalous ages may suggest that faulting events took place in about 7,500, 6,000, 3,500, and 2,000 years ago. Our future research will be to apply this method to the soil of other active fault trench wall to clarify the timing of faulting events.