Earthquakes and Seismic Hazard in the Yukon-Beaufort-Mackenzie

• Main Authors: R. D. Hyndman, J. F. Cassidy, J. Adams, G. C. Rogers, S. Mazzotti
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Yukon; Northwest Territories; Gulf of Alaska; Canada; Pacific; Yakutat; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.562.9502; http://reviewboard.ca/upload/project_document/1232994618_16453.pdf

The prospect of new hydrocarbon production as well as gas pipelines from the Beaufort-Mackenzie region, and from Alaska has resulted in increased attention to the substantial earthquake hazard in the Yukon and westernmost Northwest Territories. In this article we describe the distribution of past earthquakes and the hazard estimates based on the earth-quake data file of the Geological Survey of Canada, and geophysical and geological constraints. There is exceptional seismicity in the S.W. Yukon where the Yakutat terrane is colliding with the Pacific continental margin in the Gulf of Alaska. The collision is pushing up the spectacular St. Elias Mountains including Mt. Logan, Canada’s highest mountain. The region has one of the greatest seismic hazards in Canada, with numerous recorded magnitude 7 to 8 earthquakes. Less