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Constraining Offshore Coupling in the 1946 Tsunami Earthquake Rupture Area

One of the most important challenges currently in geodesy is accurately modeling the coupling behavior offshore in subduction zone environments. This is largely because most observations of coupling-induced deformation are made on land, where geodetic data are largely unable to resolve the behavior more than about 40 km offshore. This includes the near-trench region, making seafloor geodetic methods vital for capturing such behavior that leads to large earthquakes and tsunamis, like the 1946 Aleutian “tsunami earthquake” that generated an unexpectedly large tsunami presumably because of enhanced near-trench slip. In this region, both community- and PI-driven projects are underway to capture such deformation in Alaska using GNSS-Acoustic methods. Here, we evaluate the proposed distributions of the seafloor equipment, planned for deployment in Summer 2024 surrounding the 1946 tsunami earthquake inferred rupture area. Some of these sites will be located as close to the trench as possible (rated to 6000 m water depth), providing new information on current elastic deformation that cannot be obtained any other way. From our results, we determine the resolvability of the subduction deformation of this specific region, by analyzing the improvement provided by the spatial distribution among the stations in the current proposed geometric distribution. With this analysis, we expect to answer the extent to which questions regarding the current coupling state of the 1946 Aleutian tsunami earthquake area can be answered given the planned instrument distribution.

Session: Six Decades of Tsunami Science: From the Source of the 1964 Tsunami to Modern Community Preparedness [Poster Session]

Type: Poster

Room: Exhibit Hall

Date: 5/2/2024

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Nathalie Chavarria Esquivel

Student Presenter: Yes

Additional Authors