Offshore observations of aftershocks following the January 5th 2013 Mw 7.5 Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault earthquake, southeast Alaska
Abstract
We present initial results from a rapid-response ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) deployment that recorded aftershock activity on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather (QC-F) fault following the Mw 7.5 earthquake on January 5th 2013 near Craig, Alaska. This earthquake was the second of two Mw > 7 events on this fault system in a 3 month time period; the Craig earthquake followed a Mw 7.8 thrust event that occurred in October 2012, west of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Although the QC-F is a major plate boundary fault, little is known about the regional fault structure, interseismic coupling, and rheological controls on the depth distribution of seismic slip along the continent-ocean transform. The majority of the QC-F fault system extends offshore western British Columbia and southeast Alaska, making it difficult to characterize earthquakes and fault deformation with land-based seismic and geodetic instruments. This experiment is the first ever offshore seismometer deployment to record earthquake activity along this northern segment of the QC-F system, and was set in motion with help from the US Coast Guard, who provided a vessel and crew to deploy and recover the OBS array on short notice. The seismic array utilized 6 GeoPro short period OBS from the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, which recorded approximately 3 weeks of aftershock activity in April-May of 2013. Combining high-quality local OBS recordings with land-based seismic observations from Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC) stations to the east, we present more precise aftershock locations and depths that help to better characterize fault zone architecture along the northern section of the QC-F. Although moment tensor solutions indicate that the January 5th mainshock sustained slip consistent with Pacific-North America plate motions, aftershock focal mechanisms indicate some interaction with neighboring faults, such as the Chatham Straight fault. This new OBS dataset will also help to illuminate how the geometry of the transform boundary evolves from oblique convergence near Haida Gwaii to the near vertical strike-slip fault system of northern southeast Alaska.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.T43A2625R
- Keywords:
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- 7250 SEISMOLOGY Transform faults;
- 3050 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS Ocean observatories and experiments;
- 3039 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS Oceanic transform and fracture zone processes