Identification of active seismogenic faults in low-strain intraplate regions is a major challenge. The understanding of intraplate earthquakes is hampered by the spatiotemporal scattering of large earthquakes and by barely detectable strain accumulation. In populated humid regions, both hillslope and anthropogenic processes are important challenges to the recognition of potentially active faults.

The Lower Rhine Graben is the NW segment of the European Cenozoic Rift System. It is a prime example of a seismically active low-strain rift situated in a humid and densely populated region. The approximate location of potentially active fault segments in this region is well known, but knowledge of the recurrence of large earthquakes and of the dominant fault slip mode is still rudimentary. The current debate ranges from slip dominated by repeated large earthquakes to slip dominated by aseismic creep.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the Lower Rhine Graben is an exception to the usually observed deformational behaviour of the upper crust, whereby active faults fail by brittle behaviour. The thesis addresses the Holocene, historical and present-day tectonic activity of the Lower Rhine Graben. It examines the signs of coseismic deformation in the geological record, and the surface expression of active fault segments. I analyzed high-resolution LiDAR terrain models of segments of the Erft and Wissersheimer faults, in order to understand the preservation potential of active fault scarps in populated, humid settings. Results of the LiDAR analysis illustrate that the central part of the Lower Rhine Graben is characterized by severe degradation and modification of suspected seismogenic structures. Degradation is due to fluvial erosion, hillslope processes and anthropogenic overprint. This analysis shows, also for the first time, the severity of surface modification of the region resulting from aerial bombing during World War II.

A large trench excavation at the Schafberg fault in Holocene sediments yielded a broadly distributed fault zone with a peculiar abundance of fractured clasts. A particular question at this site is whether or not the fault ruptured in the 1756 AD Düren event. The excavation reveals the first evidence of historical seismogenic faulting in the Lower Rhine Graben. Coseismic deformation at this site is expressed by a net vertical displacement of 1 ± 0.2 m and complex gravel fracturing. Analysis of the faulted strata and radiocarbon ages of event horizons reveal evidence of at least one, possibly two coseismic events since the Holocene. The youngest of them overlaps with the 1756 AD Düren earthquake. The complex deformation pattern in the trench included a range of features such as liquefaction, rotated, and fractured clasts in the fault zone. I developed a new analysis technique based on “fractured-clasts”, which allows insight into coseismic rupture and fracture processes in unconsolidated gravel deposits.

Results of this paleoseismic study show that faults in the Lower Rhine Graben do not move dominantly by aseismic creep. They further support the observation that faults in low-strain intraplate rifts can produce large surface-breaking earthquakes. The results of this thesis further imply that specific patterns of fractured clasts in fault zones may be a detector of coseismic rupture, and could in principle be used to calculate the energy involved in the rupture process.