Tectonic model and seismic potential of the eastern gulf of Alaska and Yakataga Seismic Gap
Based on 13 new fault plane solutions and published seismological, geological, and geophysical data, we interpret the deformation along the Pacific-North American plate margin in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. Three major tectonic units can be distinguished: (1) the North American plate, (2) the Pacific plate, and (3) a belt of mobile borderland terranes. The Pacific plate moves in a NNW direction at rates of about 6 cm/yr in relation to the North American plate. That motion results in mostly right-lateral strike slip at the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault system, a well-known observation. A new finding, however, is that a small conponent (approx.1 cm/yr) of convergence may also be present which results in minor subduction of the oceanic plate beneath portions of the continental margin. Heretofore the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault zone and associated continental margin was interpreted as a classical, pure transform boundary. The Yakutat block, a borderland terrane about 400 km long and 100 to 200 km wide, is carried passively by the Pacific plate except that the block slowly overrides this plate at about 1 cm/yr. This motion is taken up by almost pure thrust faulting in a southwesterly direction along a 400-km long SE striking shelf edge structure. At its NW edge the Yakutat block is in turn being thrust beneath the North American plate along the Pamplona zone-Icy Bay lineament. The underthrusting of the Yakutat block results in a major orogeny, crustal shortening and uplift of the Chugach-St. Elias range. The effects of this collision may extend as far as 500 km inland and cause some deformation at the Denali fault in the central Alaska Range. Subduction of the Pacific plate benearth the colliding margin appears responsible for development of an active volcanic arc up to 300 km inland which trends SE from the Wrangell Mountains to Yukon Territory, Canada, and perhaps to Mt. Edgecumbe volcano in southest Alaska.
- Research Organization:
- Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964
- OSTI ID:
- 7064143
- Journal Information:
- J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Vol. 85:B13
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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