Experimental earthquake duct videos, Seibert et al. 2025

Abstract

The largest earthquakes are infrequent and poorly understood. We propose that seismic waves from major subduction earthquake ruptures can move the overlaying sea floor relatively to the water vigorously enough to entrain sediment. We used physical tank experiments to test and further develop this model. We show that relative water velocities consistent with long-period earthquake motion can mobilize synthetic fine marine sediment, and that high frequency vertical shaking can enhance this mobilization. Earthquake-induced seafloor motion for Tohoku-like earthquakes can entrain several centimeters of surficial sediment, depending on sediment characteristics including clay type, grain size, water content and salinity. High-frequency vertical shacking can enhance this entrainment. We have validated a new mechanism of co-seismic sediment entrainment in deep-water environments.

The data archived here are videos of these physical tank experiments.