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Becker, A., Davenport, C. A., Eichenberger, U., Gilli, E., Jeannin, P. Y., & Lacave, C. (2006). Speleoseismology: A critical perspective. Journal of Seismology, 10, 371–388.
Résumé: Speleoseismology is the investigation of earthquake records in caves. Traces can be seen in broken speleothems, growth anomalies in speleothems, cave sediment deformation structures, displacements along fractures and bedding plane slip, incasion (rock fall) and co-seismic fault displacements. Where earthquake origins can be proven, these traces constitute important archives of local and even regional earthquake activity. However, other processes that can generate the same or very similar deformation features have to be excluded before cave damage can be interpreted as earthquake induced. Most sensitive and therefore most valuable for the tracing of strong earthquake shocks in caves are long and slender speleothems, such as soda straws, and deposits of well-bedded, water-saturated silty sand infillings, particularly in caves close to the earth's surface. Less easily proven is a co-seismic origin of an incasion and other forms of cave damage. The loads and creep movements of sediment and ice fillings in caves can cause severe damage to speleothems which have been frequently misinterpreted as evidence of earthquakes. For the dating of events in geological archives, it is important to demonstrate that such events happened at approximately the same time, i.e. within the error bars of the dating methods. A robust earthquake explanation for cave damage can only be achieved by the adoption of appropriate methods of direct dating of deformation events in cave archives combined with correlation of events in other geological archives outside caves, such as the deformation of lake and flood-plain deposits, locations of rock falls and active fault displacements
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Lacave, C., Koller, M. W., Eichenberger, U., & Jeannin, P. Y. (2003). Prevention of speleothem rupture during nearby construction. Environmental Geology, 43, 892–900.
Résumé: The cave of Milandre, located in the Swiss Jura, is characterised by a rich speleothem population. Some of the most decorated galleries lie at low depth, (40-50 m). A new highway will be built, with a tunnel, just over a decorated part of the cave. In order to prevent damage in the cave, a study was conducted in the,framework of the impact study. One of the goals was to evaluate the risk of speleothem rupture caused by explosive shots that will be used to excavate the tunnel portal. To this end, the speleothems' vulnerability to ground shaking was compared with the observed accelerations induced by experimental explosions. This procedure allowed to determine maximum acceptable explosive charges
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