Eastern Section SSA 2011 Meeting Report

Abstract

The 83rd Eastern Section SSA meeting was hosted by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock at the Peabody Hotel downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, 16–18 October 2011, during the lovely fall season of the mid-south. The meeting began with a field trip to east central Arkansas on a day with perfect weather on Sunday 16 October 2011. The field trip, led by Drs. Martitia Tuttle and Haydar Al-Shukri, was arranged to have the participants experience the paleoseismic features that have been preserved in the shallow subsurface for thousands of years. Thirty-three of the meeting attendees participated in the field trip, which was conducted from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. To prepare for the field trip, a very wide trench was excavated using a 4-foot sand bucket backhoe at a site where multiple stacked sand blows along a lineament had been previously discovered. The large trench provided easy and safe access to paleoliquefaction features and allowed fieldtrip participants to examine them first-hand. In addition, the excavation of the sand blows provided an opportunity to improve age estimates of paleoearthquakes. Therefore, two dating samples were collected in association with the older, more poorly understood sand blow. During the field trip, we demonstrated field techniques, such as mapping of sand blows and related sand dikes with ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and we discussed observations and interpretations of paleoliquefaction features. Prior to trenching, we conducted GPR and resistivity surveys to help with the siting of the trench to optimize exposure of the paleoliquefaction features. Also, geophysical information was presented during the fieldtrip to educate participants about the usefulness of combining geophysics with trenching. As expressed by many participants, a major highlight of the meeting was the field trip. Photographs and other information are available at the meeting Web site (http://quake.ualr.edu/ES-SSA-Meeting-2011.htm). We appreciate the University …