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USGS research featured on the cover of Eos

By Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center February 14, 2018

USGS research on a big earthquake fault off Alaska and Canada is featured on the cover of Eos, a journal of Earth and space science news published by the American Geophysical Union.

“A Closer Look at an Undersea Source of Alaskan Earthquakes” describes findings from USGS-led surveys along a 500-kilometer-long undersea section of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault. This large strike-slip fault off southeast Alaska and western British Columbia has generated several large earthquakes in the past century. Future quakes and associated tsunamis could threaten coastal communities and tourists in the region. The article appeared online in August 2017 and in print in the February 2018 issue.

Map shows land and undersea features along the Alaskan coast, and the lines where geophysical surveys have been run.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Recent geophysical surveys provided high-resolution seafloor depth data for the northernmost undersea portion of the Queen Charlotte–Fairweather fault (area outlined in red). The colored seafloor relief represents multibeam echo sounder data acquired along the continental shelf and slope in 2015 and 2016; the gray seafloor relief in deeper water west of the fault was acquired by the University of New Hampshire in 2005. Black boxes are locations of depth imagery shown in other figures in the Eos article. Purple lines represent high-resolution seismic reflection profiles that were acquired in 2016 aboard the R/V Norseman. One such profile (green line) is shown in the Eos article. AMT represents the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust, and ME indicates Mount Edgecumbe.(Public domain.)

 

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