Identification and Relocation of Earthquakes in the Sparsely Instrumented Mackenzie Mountain Region, Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada

Date: 4/26/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Grand Ballroom

The Mackenzie Mountains are an actively uplifting and seismogenic arcuate thrust belt lying within the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Seismic activity in the region is poorly constrained due to a historically very sparse seismograph distribution. In this study, new data are analyzed from the ~875 km-long Mackenzie Mountains temporary (FDSN 7C) network located in the Cordillera-Craton region adjacent to and within the Mackenzie Mountains, in conjunction with Transportable Array and other sparsely distributed stations in the region. Using detection algorithms developed by Kushnir et al. [1998] and Roecker et al. [2006], signals are identified and subsequently associated across the network to identify events, establish phase onsets and estimate hypocenter locations. In this preliminary study, data from the first full year of the Mackenzie Mountains network deployment (September 2016 - September 2017) are processed and compared to earthquake catalog records maintained by the USGS. This study will further improve the regional earthquake catalog by detecting smaller-magnitude earthquakes with reasonable confidence. Future work on this project will require expanding the earthquake catalog to include all available data from the region during the two-year large-scale temporary seismograph deployment, and to interpret seismicity and areas of uplift in the context of regional-scale faults, geomorphology, and other geologic structures. Results from this study should provide new insight into the regions of active faulting within the Mackenzie Mountain uplift and to activity along large strike slip features, such as the Tintina Fault. Additionally, the Mackenzie Mountain region is identified as having high seismic hazard, and results will inform understanding of the regional geology and seismicity from a hazards and risk perspective for northwestern Canada [Natural Resources Canada, 2015].

Presenting Author: David C. Heath

Authors