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Room: Tubughnenq’ 3

Date: 5/1/2024

Session Time: 8:00 AM to 9:15 AM (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)

Oral Presentations