Paleoearthquakes of the Past ~6000 Years at the Dead Mouse Site, West-Central Denali Fault at the Nenana River, Alaska ...

The Denali fault (DF) in south-central Alaska is a major right lateral strike-slip fault that parallels the Alaska Range for much of its length. This fault represents the largest seismogenic source for interior Alaska but due to its remote location and difficulty of access, a dearth of paleoearthqua...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Carlson, Joseph K.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: University of Kentucky 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.13023/etd.2016.433
http://uknowledge.uky.edu/ees_etds/42/
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Summary:The Denali fault (DF) in south-central Alaska is a major right lateral strike-slip fault that parallels the Alaska Range for much of its length. This fault represents the largest seismogenic source for interior Alaska but due to its remote location and difficulty of access, a dearth of paleoearthquake (PEQ) information exists for this important feature. The fault system is over 1200 km in length and identification of paleoseismic sites that preserve more that 2-3 PEQs has proven challenging. In 2012 and 2015, we developed the ‘Dead Mouse’ site, which provides the first long PEQ record west of the 2002 rupture extent. This site is located on the west-central segment of the DF near the southernmost intersection of the Parks Highway and the Nenana River (63.45285, -148.80249). We hand-excavated three fault-perpendicular trenches and documented new evidence for six surface rupturing PEQs from deformation in the upper 2.5 m of stratigraphy. Evidence for these events include offset stratigraphy, filled fissures, ...