Abstract
Turbidite beds of exceptionally large volume and areal extent occur in both modern and ancient deep-water basins. These beds, which may reach individual volumes in excess of 100 km 3, are apparently the product of catastrophic gravity flows triggered by earthquakes along the margins of highly mobile basins, most commonly elongate “flysch” troughs. Turbidite beds produced by these catastrophic events are generally characterized by very distinctive geometry, internal structures, and composition, and are termed herein seismoturbidites. Characteristically, these sediments lack time-persistent features of deep-sea fans such as channels and lobes. Seismoturbidites may occur as scattered intercalations diluted within otherwise “normal” turbidite sequences, thus forming generally excellent markers for basin-wide correlations, or as closely spaced, repetitive units comprising the bulk of the sedimentary fill of certain flysch basins. In both cases, they may offer a tremendously useful tool for a better understanding of the distribution of paleoseismic zones in time and space.
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