Late Neogene Uplift of the Fairweather Ground on the Basis of Bathymetric and Seismic Data from the Gulf of Alaska

• Main Author: Guarisco, Peter David, IV
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks@UNO 2008
• Subjects: Yakutat; microplate; Alaska; bathymetry; seismic; Fairweather Ground; uplift; Transition fault; Pacific Plate; basal ecsarpment; Fairweather; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/706; https://scholarworks.uno.edu/context/td/article/1706/viewcontent/NOD_CISOPTR_706_filename_707.pdf

Pliocene to Pleistocene glacial-marine deposits adjacent to the Fairweather Ground basement in the Gulf of Alaska are the focus for seismic interpretation using public domain seismic reflection data. The late Tertiary and early Quaternary sections of the Yakataga Formation record a glacial/ interglacial climate change sequence with increasing rates of sedimentation (175 meters per million years to 4000 meters per million years). The foreland basin sediment load is deposited onto the Yakutat block, a microplate that takes up the strike-slip to convergent movement with respect to North America and Pacific plates. Tectonic activity during the last 5 million years has resulted in Eocene rock exposed at the sea floor. High resolution bathymetry data adjacent to the Yakutat microplate is utilized to 1) observe the results of deformation from Pacific plate loading on the Yakutat microplate and 2) interpret the Transition fault as an active thrust to oblique thrust fault.