Strain accumulation across the Denali fault in the Delta River canyon, Alaska.

Deformation along the Denali fault in the Delta River canyon was determined from geodetic surveys in 1941/1942, 1970, 1975, and 1979. The data were best for the 1975-79 interval; in that period the average strain accumulation was essentially pure right lateral shear at a rate of 0.6+-0.1 murad/a (a is years) (engineering shear) across a vertical plane striking N87oE. The plane of maximum shear is rotated about 30o countercloskwise from the local strike of the Denali fault but closely coincides with the strike of a major linear segment of the fault that begins 50 km farther W. The deformation between 1941-42 and 1970 is consistent with a similar rate of strain accumulation if one removes the coseismic strain step contributed by the 1964 Alaska earthquake. The 1970-75 deformation is poorly defined owing to uncertainties in the 1970 survey, but the strain accumulation during that period is certainly much less than during the 1975-79 interval. The 1975-79 strain accumulation is interpreted by means of a dislocation model which suggests that the Denali fault in the vicinity of the Delta River Canyon behaves as a leaky transform fault.-Authors