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A First Look at Earthquake Early Warning in Alaska

The goal of this study is to provide initial considerations for early warning tailored to the tectonics Alaska.

Active tectonics between the Pacfic and North American plates make Alaska one of the most seismically active areas in the world. While many of the large earthquakes in Alaska happen offshore, along the Aleutian Islands, events also occur inland at deep tectonic interfaces and numerous fault systems in the crust. These earthquakes pose serious hazards. History demonstrates this clearly. Implementing an earthquake early warning system tailored for Alaska's unique seismic setting is an inevitable development both through corporate entities and as an extension of the current early warning systems along the US west coast.

We use a scenario-based approach to examine the trade-offs between ground motion and initial warning time for a variety of realistic earthquakes. Our warning time estimates are derived from the current network of seismic stations and simple traveltime estimates. We use ShakeMap to forward model the ground motions. We present relationships between warning time, intensity of shaking and different earthquake characteristics, such as depth, magnitude, location and proximity to significant population. These findings illustrate the types of scenarios that should be addressed as we begin to consider what early warning in Alaska might look like.

Session: Advances in Earthquake Early Warning: Research, Development, Current State of Practice and Social Science I

Type: Oral

Room: Cedar

Date: 4/21/2022

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM Pacific

Presenting Author: Alexander Fozkos

Student Presenter: Yes

Additional Authors