Papers by Margret Mathes-Schmidt
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Mediterranean extreme wave sediments preserved in karst solution pockets in cliff-top sites on the island of Malta
Small-scaled variations in the 1755 CE tsunami deposits – Observations from a sedimentological trench
Continental Shelf Research
26,000 years of environmental evolution of an incised valley in a rocky coast (La Janda wetland, SW Iberia)
Continental Shelf Research
The Baelo Claudia Tsunami Archive (SW Spain)—Archaeological Deposits of High-Energy Events
Natural science in archaeology, 2022
Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made in tsunami research. Be that as it may,... more Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made in tsunami research. Be that as it may, little is still known about tsunami deposits and their related depositional mechanisms in coastal areas in historical and archaeological contexts. In particular, the Phoenician, Greek and Roman trade and military networks along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, with their cities, harbours and additional facilities, are susceptible to serving as archives for extreme wave events. The ruins of the Roman city of Baelo Claudia, located on the Bay of Bolonia Bay (southern Spain), offer a unique environment for studying historical tsunamis in the Gulf of Cadiz. Baelo Claudia suffered at least two earthquakes in Roman times, namely, in the first and fourth centuries CE. The latter, associated with a tsunami, led to the city’s destruction and subsequent decline. Accordingly, three tsunami deposits in Baelo Claudia, dated to ca. 4000 cal BP (2000 BCE), ca. 400 CE and 1755 CE, the last corresponding to the Lisbon tsunami, are described here. The multi-disciplinary research conducted on the sedimentary, archaeological and palaeontological records has revealed event deposits, together with major landscape changes in the environs of the bay after tsunami landfall. Furthermore, the significant archaeoseismic damage detected in recently excavated buildings has been dated to the end of the fourth-century CE. The results presented here serve to supplement the earthquake and tsunami record of coastal Iberia
Jura-Museum Eichstätt mit Sorgenfalten
Event deposits in the Eastern Thermaikos Gulf and Kassandra Peninsula (Northern Greece) and evidence of the 479 BC Herodotus ‐ tsunami
9th International INQUA Meeting on Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics and Archeoseismology, 2018
Returning to the facts: Response to the refusal of tsunami traces in the ancient harbour of lechaion (Gulf of Corinth, Greece) by 'non-catastrophists' - Reaffirmed evidence of harbour destruction by historical earthquakes and tsunamis in AD 69-79 and the 6th cent. AD and a preceding pre-historica...
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, 2018
Foraminifera association analysis of beach samples and drill cores from the northwest coast of Crete
The Phoenician settlement of Cerro del Villar (Málaga, southern Spain) and its natural vulnerability
<p>Tsunamis and other extreme wave events draw a severe threat to coastal populations today... more <p>Tsunamis and other extreme wave events draw a severe threat to coastal populations today and in historic times. The ancient settlement of <em>Cerro del Villar </em>located in present-day M&#225;laga, southern Spain, was built by Phoenicians around the second quarter of the 8<sup>th</sup> century BCE on a small sand bar (island) in the wide estuary of the Guadalhorce River. Later, the sand bar connected to the southern river bank and alluvial plane. Due to the low height above mean sea level, the site has been prone to river floodings, as well as extreme wave events of the Mediterranean Sea.&#160;In order to understand the palaeoenvironmental evolution and settlement history, as well as its vulnerability, it is important to analyse the nature of the events by dating and interpretation of the sedimentary record.</p><p>Here, we present first results of a short field campaign carried out in October 2019 at the western end of the Guadalhorce River palaeo-estuary, outside the boundaries of the archaeological zone. Two sediment cores (MAL-CV-1; <em>ca.</em> 3.70&#160;m length and MAL-CV-2, <em>ca.</em>&#160;4.69&#160;m) were drilled southwest of the Phoenician site. A total of eight non-invasive ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles were carried out in the surroundings of the cores, and additional GPR profiles close to the beach were taken to understand the changes in the depositional environment along the coast. The cores cover a stratigraphy of three different sediment units: a basal sand unit representing a palaeo-beach, followed by a large silt and clay unit developed in a lagoon environment, and topped by another silt and clay unit representing floodplain conditions. At MAL-CV-1 two possible high-energy event units (Ey and Ez) interrupt the low-energy silt and clay units. At MAL-CV-2 event unit Ey is preserved as well, the other event unit Ez is concealed by an anthropogenic unit rich in ceramic, brick and glass fragments. GPR profiles show the same stratigraphy and allow a lateral continuation of the different units and event deposits. With the help of these GPR profiles, event unit Ez can be traced in-between the anthropogenic unit of MAL-CV-2. In terms of chronology, two radiocarbon dates establish the transition between the basal palaeo-beach and the lagoon at 4352-4325&#160;cal.&#160;BC (6274-6301&#160;cal.&#160;BP) and the anthropogenic layer to be younger than 2201-2126&#160;cal.&#160;BC (4075-4150&#160;cal.&#160;BP). The establishment of coastal freshwater lagoons with plentiful Hydrobia gastropods and ostracods resembles the last stage of post-glacial sea level rise in the Mediterranean. In the future, these promising first results will be extended by additional radiocarbon dates and a palynological study to better understand the climate and palaeoenvironmental evolution.</p>
Micropaleontologial and Geochemical Investigations of Tsunamigenic Layers Along the Thracian Coast (Northern Greece)
(1) Inst. of Neotectonics and Natural Hazards, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, D 520... more (1) Inst. of Neotectonics and Natural Hazards, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, D 52056 Aachen, Germany, email: m.mathes@nug.rwth-aachen.de (2) Inst. of Geology and Geochemistry of Petroleum and Coal, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, D 52056 Aachen, Germany (3) Laboratory of Mineralogy & Geology, Department of Geological Sciences and Atmospheric Environment, Agricultural University of Athens, 75 Iera Odos Str., 118 55 Athens, Greece and Benfield-UCL Hazard Research Centre, University College London, UK
Sedimentary Geology, 2019
In 1755 CE, a strong earthquake followed by a transatlantic tsunami destroyed large coastal areas... more In 1755 CE, a strong earthquake followed by a transatlantic tsunami destroyed large coastal areas; it also left its sedimentary imprints in the Boca do Rio valley (western Algarve, Portugal). This tsunami layer is very well preserved and has been analysed in several studies. Deposits of preceding extreme wave events, however, have rarely been described for the entire Algarve coast. In this study, we present a multiproxy analysis of seven sediment cores from the Boca do Rio region, organized in two crossing transects, one parallel and the other perpendicular to the coastline. The geochronological framework has been established by combining radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating with sedimentological and geochemical analyses (XRF, C/N, magnetic susceptibility, granulometry, micropalaeontology), and covers the palaeogeographical evolution of that area for the last four millennia. As expected, the 1755 CE tsunami was easily identified at all coring sites, as a sandwiched stratum between fine-grained alluvium. This event layer presents several tsunami characteristics, such as erosive basal contact, rip-up clasts, a fining-upward sequence, and a mud cap. At one coring site, a second extreme wave event layer of marine origin was detected within floodplain deposits, due to its granulometric, XRF, magnetic susceptibility and micropalaeontological properties. It is stratigraphically located below the 1755 CE Lisbon tsunami layer and can be associated with another yet undocumented extreme wave event, most likely dating to the mid or late 1st millennium CE.
Publicity waves based on manipulated geoscientific data suggesting climatic trigger for majority of tsunami findings in the Mediterranean – Response to 'Tsunamis in the geological record: Making waves with a cautionary tale from the Mediterranean' by Marriner et al. (2017)
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplementary Issues, 2018
This article is a response to the publication by Nick Marriner, David Kaniewski, Christophe Morha... more This article is a response to the publication by Nick Marriner, David Kaniewski, Christophe Morhange, Clément Flaux, Matthieu Giaime, Matteo Vacchi and James Goff entitled "Tsunamis in the geological record: Making waves with a cautionary tale from the Mediterranean", published in October 2017 in Science Advances. Making use of radiometric data sets published in the context of selected palaeotsunami studies by independent research groups from different countries, Marriner et al. (2017) carried out statistical and time series analyses. They compared their results with an assessment of Mediterranean storminess since the mid-Holocene that was previously published by Kaniewski et al. (2016) based on a single-core study from coastal Croatia. Marriner et al. (2017) now present "previously unrecognized" 1500-year "tsunami megacycles" which they suggest correlating with Mediterranean climate deterioration. They conclude that up to 90% of all the 'tsunamis&#...
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplementary Issues, 2010
The AD 1755 tsunami and other extreme wave events in Boca do Río, Portugal
Zur Bearbeitung wurden vom Rijks Geologischen Dienst Heerlen die Bohrkerne zwischen 900,0 m und 1... more Zur Bearbeitung wurden vom Rijks Geologischen Dienst Heerlen die Bohrkerne zwischen 900,0 m und 1687,2 m, eine vorläufige Tabelle zur Stratigraphie sowie eine Bohrkernaufnahme mit Daten zur Lithologie, Schichtung und Dipmeterwerten (Archievnr. A1 9099g, A2 9099b-f) zur Verfügung gestellt. Des weiteren wurde die Auflösung der Conodontenproben in den Labors des Geologisch Bureau Heerlen/Rijks Geologische Dienst (RGD) ermöglicht.
The Santo André lagoon at the Atlantic coast of Portugal – Holocene evolution and event history
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
The sedimentological and environmental footprint of extreme wave events in Boca do Rio, Algarve coast, Portugal
Sedimentary Geology
Uploads
Papers by Margret Mathes-Schmidt