The study of active tectonic structures in offshore areas has been hampered by the scarcity of direct observations and by the limited resolution of indirect data. Nevertheless, in the last years, the development of new geophysical instrumentation and the acquisition of high-resolution bathymetric and active and passive seismic data (i.e., chirp, parametric sounder, multichannel profiles or OBS information) has allowed making major advances in the study of active faults in offshore areas. These new data have become fundamental not only to identify and describe active tectonic structures but also to characterize their Quaternary activity and seismogenic potential. Together with these developments, our understanding of marine active tectonics and our knowledge about their associated hazards have also improved.
The aim of this session is to compile studies which focus on the use of geophysical data to identify and characterize offshore active structures (i.e., faults and folds), their seismogenic and tsunamigenic potential and possibly related features such as submarine landslides, and to estimate the related hazards. Studies can be focused at regional or local scale and the session includes but is not limited to, the following topics:
- Active faulting identification and description and/or 3D modeling.
- Contribution of seismicity analysis to the seismotectonic characterization of offshore areas.
- Seismogenic characterization of active structures and estimation of their tsunamigenic potential.
- Active tectonics processes related to landslides triggering.
- Contribution of marine active tectonic study to the hazard assessment.