9418681 Hesterberg This project will locate and quantify deformation due to past, relatively recent tectonic activity in areas of low relief, such as the New Madrid seismic zone, which are often located far from plate boundaries and may be overlain by thousands of meters of sediments. Previous geomorphic methods have had little success in the past; this project will develop and test new methods that are based on the observation that streams adjust their channels to external change by incising, aggrading, or altering their sinuosity. The method is a statistical one and relatively inexpensive. It uses topographic maps rather than field work. The results of this project will provide a useful reconnaisance tool for any low relief continental area subject to large earthquakes and will profoundly improve our understanding of active tectonics in the cratonic regions of continents.
