Paleoseismicity of the continental margin of Eastern Canada; rare regional failures and associated turbidites in Orphan Basin

The eastern Canadian continental margin is a typical glaciated passive margin where historic earthquakes have triggered submarine landslides. This study compares seismological estimates of earthquake recurrence with the geological record over the past 85 k.y. offshore of Newfoundland to assess the reliability of the geologic record. Heinrich layers in cores provide chronology at ∼3-5 k.y. resolution in high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles across headscarps and mass-transport deposits. Landslide-generated turbidites on the basin floor have distinctive petrology, sedimentology, and distribution, with ∼1 k.y. chronologic resolution. Large slope failures occurred synchronously over margin lengths of 50-300 km. Since 85 ka, four failures have affected a >150-km-long sector of the slope and 18 failures were large enough to be recognized in seismic-reflection profiles and/or cores. The widespread failures were earthquake triggered; other mechanisms for triggering laterally extensive synchronous failure do not apply. A frequency-magnitude plot of length of failed slope was calibrated by the published relationship that an order-of-magnitude increase in failed slope length corresponds to two orders of magnitude of earthquake energy, together with the published estimate of Mw = 8.0 for the largest earthquake on the Canadian eastern continental margin. Mean recurrence interval of M = 7 earthquakes at any point on the margin is estimated at 25-30 k.y. from both seismological models and the sediment failure record. On such a margin with modest sedimentation rates (∼0.3 m/k.y.) and low seismicity, sediment failures provide a robust estimator of past seismicity.