Room: Exhibit Hall
Date: 5/1/2024
Session Time: 8:00 AM to 5:45 PM (local time)
Identifying and characterizing active faults can now be performed almost routinely in places with high strain rates and clear geomorphology. In high strain rate domains, seismicity typically aligns along active fault planes, and slip rates are detectable with GNSS networks. Furthermore, standard methodologies in tectonic geomorphology have developed and matured in arid environments with minimal vegetation, such as in the deserts of the Western United States or Asia.
However, these conditions are not met in all seismically active regions. In low strain rate domains, faults may not produce pronounced geomorphic expressions, and if there are significant ruptures, exceptionally long recurrence intervals contribute to challenges in identifying them. This problem is especially acute in recently glaciated regions where the very young landscapes may not preserve a complete earthquake record. Furthermore, thick vegetation common to many of the same regions (e.g., Western Canada, Alaska), can make remote sensing and field observations of the bare earth difficult. Microseismicity, even when rigorously relocated, often does not align along fault planes, and GNSS networks do not have the necessary precision to measure strain accumulation across faults. Consequently, there is often disagreement between different disciplines about whether there is enough evidence to consider a fault "active" and hazardous. In this session, we solicit abstracts on inconspicuous active faults, and those which are difficult to observe and assess. We hope to hear from a wide variety of practitioners using innovative techniques in paleoseismology, field geology, marine geology, observational seismology, geodesy, remote sensing and modelling to find and characterize these challenging, cryptic faults.
Conveners:
Theron Finley, University of Victoria (tfinley@uvic.ca)
Tiegan Hobbs, Geological Survey of Canada (tiegan.hobbs@NRCan-RNCan.gc.ca)
Barrett Salisbury, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (barrett.salisbury@alaska.gov)
Lydia Staisch, U.S. Geological Survey (lstaisch@usgs.gov)
Poster Presentations
| Participant Role | Details | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Submission | Late Pleistocene Kinematics of the Great Southern Puerto Rico Fault Zone, Puerto Rico | View |
| Submission | A Comprehensive Search for Evidence of Active Faulting in the Southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada: Progress and Preliminary Results | View |
| Submission | Investigating Holocene-Active Faulting in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia Through Archived Seismic Reflection Data | View |
| Submission | A Detailed Earthquake Catalog for Interior Alaska Fault Zones | View |
| Submission | Geologic and Geomorphic Evidence for Possible Reactivation Along the Dry Creek Fault Zone and Hoadley Fault, Cryptic Faults in the Northern Sacramento Valley and Surrounding Areas | View |
| Submission | Steps Toward Linking the Kaltag and Tintina Faults in Interior Alaska | View |
| Submission | Characterization of Slip Rates Across the Buffalo Valley, Buena Vista Valley, and Southern Shoshone Faults, Central Nevada | View |
| Submission | Spatial Patterns of Tectonic Deformation at the Mendocino Triple Junction Inferred From River Terraces and Landscape Morphology | View |
| Submission | Constraints on Late-Quaternary Fault Displacement and Tectonic Hazards in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, Northern California, From Shallow Sediment Cores Across the Pittsburg – Kirby Hills Fault System | View |
| Submission | Seismic Imaging and Structure of the West Napa Fault Near Calistoga, California | View |
Cryptic Faults: Advances in Characterizing Low Strain Rate and Environmentally Obscured Faults [Poster Session]
Description