A rough guide to limestone fault scarps

The surface roughness of limestone fault scarps in central Greece is examined with the aim of relating variations in rock weathering to palaeoseismic activity. The study employs a micro-roughness meter (MRM) and a carpenterʹs profile gauge to collect field measurements of scarp roughness, presenting the results in terms of roughness indices which permit comparison between different height levels of a scarp. The study confirms the increasing degradation of scarps with height, thereby inferring the time-dependent evolution of fault-scarp roughness. In addition, roughness indices are found to discriminate between fault surfaces exposed during the (1981) Corinth earthquakes and those emergent prior to this event.