The seismic origin of turbidites is verified either by correlating such layers to historic earthquakes, or by demonstrating their synchronous deposition in widely spaced, isolated depocenters. A historic correlation could thus constrain the seismic intensity required for triggering turbidites. However, historic calibration is not applicable to prehistoric turbidites. In addition, the synchronous deposition of turbidites is difficult to test if only one deep core is drilled in a depocenter. Here, we propose a new approach that involves analyzing the underlying in situ deformations of prehistoric turbidites, as recorded in a 457 m‐long core from the Dead Sea center, to establish their seismic origin. These in situ deformations have been verified as seismites and could thus authenticate the trigger for each overlying turbidite. Moreover, our high‐resolution chemical and sedimentological data validate a previous hypothesis that soft‐sediment deformation in the Dead Sea formed at the sediment‐water interface.

Palaeogene environmental evolution in East Asia remains ambiguous. Here we present integrative work including magnetostratigraphy, grain‐size, geochemistry, and clay mineralalogy from a 1609 m‐thick fluviolacustrine sequence in eastern China. The results reveal two periods of tectonic control alternating with three periods of climatic control on the sedimentary evolution. Tectonic activity in the study area, as revealed by particle coarsening and reduced weathering, occurred during 65.6–59 Ma and strengthened in Asia during 55–54 Ma in response to the India‐Eurasia collision. Weathering gradually enhanced in East Asia during 59–55 Ma, probably caused by global warming. Continuous global warming during 54–50.5 Ma is responsible for enhanced aridification in East Asia. From 50.5 to 37.6 Ma, global cooling weakened evapotranspiration and increased westerlies‐derived moisture. Both aspects increased effective moisture and chemical weathering in East Asia. These results shed light on how alternating tectonism and climate change impacted environmental evolution in Asia during the Palaeogene.

The possible link between the occurrence of submarine mass failure and climate‐driven factors is highly disputed. This is due largely to the lack of comprehensive records of mass failures in the geologic record for which ages, triggers, and preconditioning factors can be reliably constrained. Such controls would allow accurate testing of cause‐and‐effect relationships. We present a record that comprises 490 earthquake‐triggered mass failure deposits from the Dead Sea depocenter over the past 220 kyr that permits a robust statistical evaluation and correlation with potential preconditioning factors. Our data set reveals that (a) at the orbital‐ and millennial‐scale, variable sedimentation rates are not a preconditioning factor for these mass failure deposits; (b) at the centennial‐to decadal‐scale, earthquake‐triggered mass failures can occur at any lake‐level state; (c) at the orbital‐ and millennial‐scale, the mass failures are more frequent when lake‐levels were high and punctuated by large‐amplitude fluctuations.

The detailed analysis of folding in rocks was in part pioneered by John Ramsay, and resulted in a range of techniques and criteria to define folds. Although folding of unlithified or ‘soft’ sediments is typically assumed to produce similar geometries to those in ‘hard rocks’, there has to date been little detailed analysis of such folds. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate folds developed during soft-sediment deformation (SSD) by applying techniques established for the analysis of tectonic folds during hard-rock deformation (HRD). We use the Late Pleistocene Lisan Formation exposed around the Dead Sea as our case study, as the laminated lake sediments record intricacies of fold detail generated during seismically triggered slumping of mass transport deposits (MTDs) towards the depocentre of the basin. While it is frequently assumed that folds created during SSD are chaotic and form disharmonic structures, we provide analyses that show harmonic fold trains may form during slumping, although larger upright folds cannot be traced for significant distances and are more typically disharmonic. Our analysis also reveals a range of fold styles, with more competent detrital-rich layers displaying buckles (Class 1B), as well as upright Class 1A folds marked by thickened limbs. Class 1A buckle folds are generally considered to be created by flattening that overprints folds with an original Class 1B geometry. As thickened fold limbs are truncated by overlying erosive surfaces, the vertical flattening is considered to have occurred during the slump event. Different fold shapes may partially reflect variable flattening, depending on the original orientation of upright or recumbent folds, together with continued downslope-directed simple-shear deformation that modifies the fold geometry. Analysis of fold wavelength, amplitude and bed thickness allows us to plot strain contour maps, and indicates that beds defining slump folds display viscosity contrasts in the range of 50–250, which are similar to values estimated from folds created during HRD in metamorphic rocks. A range of refold patterns, similar to those established by John Ramsay in metamorphic rocks, are observed within slumps, and are truncated by the overlying sediments, indicating that they formed during a single progressive slump event rather than distinct ‘episodes’ of superimposed deformation. This study confirms that techniques developed for the analysis of folds created during HRD are equally applicable to those formed during SSD, and that resulting folds are generally indistinguishable from one another. Extreme caution should therefore be exercised when interpreting the origin of folds in the rock record where the palaeogeographical and tectonic contexts become increasingly uncertain, thereby leading to potential misidentification of folds created during SSD.