Southern Willunga Fault Paleoseismic Trench Data for 3-5 Earthquakes

Preliminary results from a paleoseismic investigation of the southern Willunga Fault, approximately 40 km south of Adelaide. Evidence is preserved for 3-5 ground-rupturing earthquakes since the Middle to Late Pleistocene, with single event displacements of 0.5–1.7 meters. This abstract was presented at the Australian & NZ Geomorphology Group Conference in September 2022.

Use Cases

• Modeling seismic hazard for communities near Adelaide based on evidence of 3-5 past earthquakes.
• Estimating fault slip rates and recurrence intervals based on single event displacements of 0.5–1.7 m.
• Correlating recent uplift history with longer-term landscape evolution evidenced by uplifted Pliocene basins.

Strengths

• Provides field evidence for 3-5 ground-rupturing paleoearthquakes.
• Quantifies single event displacements within a range of 0.5 to 1.7 meters.
• Focuses on a specific fault segment ~40 km south of Adelaide, offering localized hazard insight.

Limitations

• Data is presented as a conference abstract PDF; underlying trench logs and sample data are not provided.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Paleoseismic trench investigation across the fault to examine relationships between fault planes and sedimentary strata.

Time Range

Middle to Late Pleistocene to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:55:47.319018; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Willunga Fault, Mt Lofty Ranges, approximately 40 km south of Adelaide, South Australia