Ofelia Soledad Silio

• Berstad, Magnus Ketilson Rykke; Torabi, Anita; Silio, Ofelia Soledad; Basa, Abhisek & García-Tortosa, Francisco Juan (2025). Relation between seismites and active faulting. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. ISSN 1474-7065. 141. doi: 10.1016/j.pce.2025.104167. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Seismites occur during an earthquake in soft sediments, when seismic energy increases pore water pressure beyond the overburden pressure, reducing cohesion, and hence deforming the sediments. Therefore, the presence of seismites could reveal the magnitude of an earthquake, although the kinematic and mechanical relation between the active faults and seismites have not been previously understood. In southern Spain, within the Guadix-Baza basin, seismites are found in close proximity to the active Galera fault (GF) and Baza fault (BF) in three localities, Galera, Pilares and Cúllar. This study aims to determine if the location of seismites relative to the active fault, controls seismites spacing, orientation, size, and geometry. A multi-scale approach was used, integrating drone-based photogrammetry, outcrop studies of the geometry and mechanical properties of seismites (Young's moduli). Our results reveal a consistent alignment of the seismites strike with nearby segments of the GF. Furthermore, we observe a variation in the size and frequency of seismites along the fault damage zone. We observed color variations within the concentric layers of seismites (grey and red) that have different Young's moduli values and vary between the studied localities in Pilares and Galera. Our results show that slight variations in the depth of depositional environment of the lacustrine sediments and changes in the mineralogy, together with the positioning of seismites relative to GF and BF likely contribute to the observed differences in seismite characteristics across the investigated localities. Our findings enhance the understanding of fault-seismite relationships and using seismites as past seismicity indicators.

• Lovecchio, Juan Pablo; Abdelmalak, Mohamed Mansour; Planke, Sverre; Silio, Ofelia Soledad; Rohais, Sébastien & Arismendi, Sebastián [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2024). Mesozoic rifting in SW Gondwana and break-up of the Southern South Atlantic Ocean. Geological Society Special Publication. ISSN 0305-8719. 547(1), p. 75–107. doi: 10.1144/SP547-2023-140. Full text in Research Archive

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