Characterization of potentially active faults in the southern Upper Rhine Graben using GPR

摘要

The Upper Rhine Graben (URG) is one of the tectonically most active regions in Europe. It is delimited by faults to both sites, which are supposed to be active especially at the eastern side. This area includes a series of critical facilities, e.g. the nuclear power plant Fessenheim, located in direct vicinity of active faults. For risk assessment, the long-term deformation rate within the eastern border fault system is an important parameter. However, no recent neotectonic studies exist for that area. To fill this gap, a geophysical survey with GPR and ERT was conducted with the goal of finding an appropriate trenching site for a detailed paleoseismic study. The results presented here from the southern part of the URG suggest that the Rhine River fault has indeed been active in relatively recent times.