Drivers of glacially induced fault reactivation in the Baltic Sea sector of the Tornquist Fan

Abstract

We analyse the effect of Quaternary glaciations on the complex tectonic pattern within the southwestern Baltic Sea, a sector of the transition zone from the East European Craton to the West European Platform. This area comprises the Caledonian Trans–European Suture Zone in the south and the Tornquist Zone in the north. Multiple fault zones in between, with different strike and dip angles, and characters (normal, thrust/reverse, strike-slip), document like scars the alternately transpressional and transtensional stress activities since the Palaeozoic. We determine the strike directions and dip angles of more than 40 potential glacially reactivated faults identified in 2D marine reflection seismic data. Finite element simulations of different glacial isostatic adjustment models provide glacially induced Coulomb failure stress changes (ΔCFS) at the faults over time, starting 200 000 years ago (200 ka, Saalian phase) up to 1000 years into the future. Assuming strike-slip or thrust/reverse background stresses, a potential reactivation of each fault is analysed. The detected reactivation phases are related to the waxing and waning ice masses (Late Saalian ice advances: c. 170–135 ka ago; Weichselian ice advances: 70–60, 45–38, 26–14 ka ago) and point to an activation in front of the ice margin. Comparing the ΔCFS results of the individual faults laterally and over time, we found that the location of the fault, depending on its position during a glacial maximum, has an important effect on its reactivation potential. The closer a fault was located to the former ice margin, the higher was the glacially induced stress during the ice retreat. Based on earlier findings in Germany and Denmark, glacially triggered faults are a typical consequence of the Fennoscandian glaciation throughout northern central Europe, and this also applies to future glaciation phases.