WITHDRAWN Preliminary Constraints on Quaternary Fault Activity in the Malawi Rift from New High-resolution Bathymetry and Seismic Data
Description:
WITHDRAWN Active rifts such as the Malawi Rift in the East Africa Rift System host faults capable of hosting large earthquakes. Many questions remain on the distribution of deformation, fault growth and linkage, and influence of surface processes on fault behavior. The potential of >100-km-long border faults to host large earthquakes has long been recognized, but recent earthquakes up to M6 near Karonga, Malawi highlight the earthquake hazard posed by intrarift faults, including faults below Lake Malawi. Existing seismic reflection imaging shows that many intrarift faults offset the lake floor and youngest sediments, providing further evidence that they are active. However, these profiles are generally too sparse and low resolution to constrain fault lengths and recent activity. We plan to acquire high-resolution bathymetric data to image the geometries and linkage of faults beneath Lake Malawi and CHIRP data to map sediments and faults up to ~50-100 m below the lake bottom. A team of US and Malawian scientists plan to acquire multibeam bathymetric and CHIRP data in several focus regions in the North and Central Basins of Lake Malawi in January-February 2024 aboard the M/V Timba, a ship operated by the Malawi Department of Surveys. This will be the first time that modern bathymetric data have been collected in Lake Malawi. New geophysical data will be integrated with existing seismic and drilling data to determine the positions, geometries, and Quaternary slip rates on faults below Lake Malawi. In this presentation, we will show preliminary results from this new project.
Session: Learning Across Geological, Geophysical & Model-Derived Observations to Constrain Earthquake Behavior [Poster Session]
Type: Poster
Date: 5/1/2024
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: Donna
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Authors
Donna Shillington Presenting Author Corresponding Author donna.shillington@nau.edu Northern Arizona University |
Christopher Scholz cascholz@syr.edu Syracuse University |
Patrick Chindandali prc65@nau.edu Northern Arizona University |
Douglas Wood dawood05@syr.edu Syracuse University |
John Greenlee jmgreenl@syr.edu Syracuse University |
McKenzie Brannon mabranno@syr.edu Syracuse University |
Robert Moucha rmoucha@syr.edu Syracuse University |
Liang Xue lxue07@syr.edu Syracuse University |
M/V Timba Science Party donna.shillington@nau.edu Malawi Department of Surveys |
WITHDRAWN Preliminary Constraints on Quaternary Fault Activity in the Malawi Rift from New High-resolution Bathymetry and Seismic Data
Category
Learning Across Geological, Geophysical & Model-Derived Observations to Constrain Earthquake Behavior