Multiple pulses in lacustrine turbidites reveal earthquake doublets

Earthquake doublets form a particular challenge for seismic hazard assessment and can provide insights into potentially characteristic fault behaviour. However, knowledge on this type of earthquake sequences is limited to information provided by historical archives as their identification in paleoseismic records is ambiguous. The continuous sedimentation records provided by lacustrine settings might be able to resolve closely-timed earthquakes, but confident identification of earthquake doublets has, up to now, not been made. To reveal the potential of these high-resolution records, we perform a detailed analysis of a multi-pulsed turbidite that has been identified in the sedimentary infill of Lake Singkarak and that was generated by the March 2007 West Sumatra earthquake doublet (i.e. two M_w>6 shocks on adjacent fault segments at 2 hours apart). In order to distinguish non-synchronously generated pulses in this turbidite (different earthquake, same turbidite source area) from those that are potentially synchronously-generated (same earthquake, different turbidite source areas), we develop a new methodology that allows analysing paleoflow directions by using grain-size analysis, natural remanent magnetization measurements and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography. Combining these techniques allows us to reveal the absolute geographical orientation of elongated grains, which are considered to be deposited aligned to the dominant paleoflow direction. Application to the 2007 turbidite in Lake Singkarak allows identifying the presence of non-synchronously generated pulses, thus confirming that each earthquake in the 2007 West Sumatra doublet triggered separate turbidity currents in the lake. Our study thus underscores the invaluable sensitivity of lacustrine paleoseismic records and outlines a promising methodology to analyse previously-described multi-pulsed lacustrine turbidites to reveal the occurrence of, up to now, unknown earthquake doublets.