Classifying marine faults for hazard assessment offshore Israel: a new approach based on fault size and vertical displacement

Abstract

Abstract. For many countries, the methodology for offshore geohazard mitigation lags far behind the well-established onshore methodology. Particularly complicated is the assessment of fault hazard in the marine environment. The determination of whether a fault is active or not requires ultra-high-resolution seismic surveys and multiple coring and, unfortunately, frequently ends with uncertain results. Moreover, if a pipeline must cross a fault, it is not enough to determine whether the fault is active; slip rates are needed for resistant planning. Here we suggest a new approach for fault hazard assessment for the master planning of infrastructure. We provide planners a way to choose a route that will cross the least hazardous faults; these faults will then be investigated in site-specific surveys for slip rates that will allow seismic design. Instead of following the onshore practice that is hard to implement in the marine environment, we suggest taking advantage of the marine environment where seismic data are commonly better in quantity and quality. Based on existing industrial 3D seismic surveys, we measure for each fault in the study area the amount of its recent (in our specific case, 350 ka) vertical displacement and the size of its plane. According to these two independently measured quantities, we classify the faults into three hazard levels. This allows planners to choose infrastructure routes that cross the least hazardous faults at an early stage of planning and direct them to sites that need further investigation. Our case study is the Israeli continental slope, where numerous salt-related, thin-skinned, normal faults dissect the seabed, forming tens of meters high scarps. A particular hazardous zone is the upper slope south of the Dor disturbance, where a series of big listric faults rupture the seabed in an area where the sedimentation rate is 4 times faster than the vertical displacement rate. We suggest that this indicates exceptionally fast creep, seismic rupture, or rapid tremor and slip episodes.