This research aims to better characterize the earthquake potential of the southern Fairweather Fault in order to provide more accurate fault source data for the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map. Our approach interrogates lidar data and satellite imagery, applies paleoseismological methods to examine earthquake history, and leverages partnerships with USGS scientists from Colorado and California, the National Park Service, NOAA, and the Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
Return to Geology >> Hazards >> Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards
The magnitude 7.8 Lituya Bay earthquake resulted from a 260-km long rupture of the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska, yet we know little about how often events of this size reoccur. Between 2012 and 2014, renewed seismic events on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault system caused a series of moderate to large earthquakes, including the 2012 M7.8 Haida Gwaii earthquake, the 2013 M7.5 Craig earthquake and the 2014 M6.0 Palma Bay earthquake. The 2014 earthquake triggered an undersea slump that severed a fiber optic cable, which serves communities in the greater Gustavus-Juneau area, including the state capitol. We are conducting comprehensive onshore and offshore geologic and geophysical investigations to fully characterize the seismic potential of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault system in southeast Alaska. Specifically, these investigations include (1) acquisition and interpretation of remotely sensed topographic data, including lidar, satellite imagery and legacy aerial photography; (2) mapping of tectonic geomorphology and active traces of the southern Fairweather Fault; and (3) investigation of earthquake recurrence intervals, slip-per-earthquake, and style of deformation through field investigations that include paleoseismic trenching where practicable.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards
Alaska Seismic Hazard Map
Alaska-Aleutian Subduction Zone Studies
Below are publications associated with this project.
The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska
Strain partitioning in southeastern Alaska: Is the Chatham Strait Fault active?
Neotectonics of interior Alaska and the late Quaternary slip rate along the Denali fault system
Sculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada
Below are news stories associated with this project.
- Overview
This research aims to better characterize the earthquake potential of the southern Fairweather Fault in order to provide more accurate fault source data for the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map. Our approach interrogates lidar data and satellite imagery, applies paleoseismological methods to examine earthquake history, and leverages partnerships with USGS scientists from Colorado and California, the National Park Service, NOAA, and the Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
Return to Geology >> Hazards >> Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards
The magnitude 7.8 Lituya Bay earthquake resulted from a 260-km long rupture of the Fairweather Fault in southeast Alaska, yet we know little about how often events of this size reoccur. Between 2012 and 2014, renewed seismic events on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault system caused a series of moderate to large earthquakes, including the 2012 M7.8 Haida Gwaii earthquake, the 2013 M7.5 Craig earthquake and the 2014 M6.0 Palma Bay earthquake. The 2014 earthquake triggered an undersea slump that severed a fiber optic cable, which serves communities in the greater Gustavus-Juneau area, including the state capitol. We are conducting comprehensive onshore and offshore geologic and geophysical investigations to fully characterize the seismic potential of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault system in southeast Alaska. Specifically, these investigations include (1) acquisition and interpretation of remotely sensed topographic data, including lidar, satellite imagery and legacy aerial photography; (2) mapping of tectonic geomorphology and active traces of the southern Fairweather Fault; and (3) investigation of earthquake recurrence intervals, slip-per-earthquake, and style of deformation through field investigations that include paleoseismic trenching where practicable.
Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault study area offshore the west coast of Canada, and Southeast Alaska . A: Red line is the QueenCharlotte-Fairweather Fault. Box indicates area of map C. B. Location map. C. Water depths offshore in study area.(Public domain.) - Science
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards
Alaska has more large earthquakes than the rest of the United States combined. More than three-quarters of the state’s population live in an area that can experience a magnitude 7 earthquake. Our research provides objective science that helps stakeholders prepare for and mitigate the effects of future earthquakes and tsunamis, which bolsters the economic health and well-being of Alaska and the...Alaska Seismic Hazard Map
The National Seismic Hazard Maps developed by the USGS show the spatial probability of peak earthquake-driven ground motion levels. Since the last revisions to the map for Alaska in 2007, scientists have made significant advances in understanding active faulting, fault slip rates, and fault behavior.Alaska-Aleutian Subduction Zone Studies
Our research team is exploring seismic and aseismic slip along the Alaska-Aleutian arc and studying the prehistoric record of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis along the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zoneSeismic and Aseismic Slip: Tectonic tremor and associated slow slip events represent a newly discovered part of the earthquake cycle. This research aims to understand the process generating... - Multimedia
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
The Peters Hills basin, a Neogene wedge-top basin on the Broad Pass thrust fault, south-central Alaska
The Neogene Peters Hills basin is a small terrestrial basin that formed along the south flank of the Alaska Range during a time in which there was regional shortening. The formation of the Peters Hills basin is consistent with it being a wedge-top basin that formed on top of the active southeast-vergent Broad Pass thrust fault. Movement along this thrust raised a ridge of Jurassic and Cretaceous mStrain partitioning in southeastern Alaska: Is the Chatham Strait Fault active?
A 1200 km-long transform plate boundary passes through southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia and represents one of the most seismically active, but poorly understood continental margins of North America. Although most of the plate motion is accommodated by the right-lateral Queen Charlotte–Fairweather Fault (QCFF) System, which has produced at least six M > 7 earthquakes since 1920Neotectonics of interior Alaska and the late Quaternary slip rate along the Denali fault system
The neotectonics of southern Alaska (USA) are characterized by a several hundred kilometers–wide zone of dextral transpressional that spans the Alaska Range. The Denali fault system is the largest active strike-slip fault system in interior Alaska, and it produced a Mw 7.9 earthquake in 2002. To evaluate the late Quaternary slip rate on the Denali fault system, we collected samples for cosmogenicSculpted by water, elevated by earthquakes—The coastal landscape of Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Within Glacier Bay National Park in southeastern Alaska, the Fairweather Fault represents the onshore boundary between two of Earth’s constantly moving tectonic plates: the North American Plate and the Yakutat microplate. Satellite measurements indicate that during the past few decades the Yakutat microplate has moved northwest at a rate of nearly 5 centimeters per year relative to the North AmeriEastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada
We map the 385-kilometer (km) long surface trace of the right-lateral, strike-slip Denali Fault between the Totschunda-Denali Fault intersection in Alaska, United States and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. In Alaska, digital elevation models based on light detection and ranging and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data enabled our fault mapping at scales of 1:2,000 and 1:10, - News
Below are news stories associated with this project.