LiDAR DEM detection and classification of postglacial faults and seismically-induced landforms in Finland: a paleoseismic database

Abstract

During the last decades, postglacial faults (PGFs) have been found in northern Fennoscandia, the first fault scarps being discovered in western Finnish Lapland in the 1960s. With LiDAR-based digital elevation models (DEMs), a new and accurate remote sensing mapping methodology has been acquired. It allows the relatively rapid and low-cost detection and mapping of late- or PGFs and, for instance, mapping of landslides from areas where they have not previously been recognized. We describe the approach of the Geological Survey of Finland to the systematic search for (screening) and mapping of PGFs, paleolandslides, and other morphological features of Quaternary deposits related to post- and late-glacial seismic activity in Finland. The observations have been collected and classified into a file geodatabase with ArcGis (© ESRI) using a procedure that includes several steps. We also provide examples from western and northern Finland of how sites of late- and postglacial fault scarps and landslides have been detected and described from LiDAR DEM data.

Keywords:

• fault
• landslide
• bedrock
• seismic activity
• Quaternary deposits
• postglacial
• Finland

Acknowledgements

This work is a part of the “Postglacial faults and seismites” project at the Geological Survey of Finland and PGSDYN cooperation between GTK and Posiva Oy. The authors wish to thank the reviewers for constructive comments.