Sediment Core from Bearsden Pond

USGS Research Geologist Jessica Rodysill and USGS-NAGT Student Intern Kristen Steele inspect a sediment core from Bearsden Pond near the Fredericks Hall fault, one of three subsidiary faults that broke in response to slip along the main Quail fault on 23 August 2011 during the M5.8 earthquake.  This research is a collaborative project between the USGS Land Use Mission Area, the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program and the Earthquake Hazards Program.  Data collected from this work, i.e. documentation of soft sediment deformation from the 2011 earthquake and aftershocks, will be used as a “proof of concept” proxy for coring other lakes in the CEUS, including the Charleston Seismic Zone, which may hold evidence for paleo (pre-historic) earthquakes.