Multibeam bathymetry data between Cross Sound and Dixon Entrance, offshore southeastern Alaska, collected from 2016-05-17 to 2016-06-12 during field activity 2016-625-FA

Publication Date

2017

Start Date

2016-05-17

End Date

2016-06-12

Balster-Gee, A.F., Andrews, B.D., Brothers, D.S., ten Brink, U.S., Kluesner, J.W., and Haeussler, P.J., 2017, Multibeam and multichannel sparker seismic-reflection data between Cross Sound and Dixon Entrance, offshore southeastern Alaska, collected from 2016-05-17 to 2016-06-12 during field activity 2016-625-FA: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7NG4PTW.

The Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault (QCFF) is a major structural feature that extends more than 1,200 km from northern Vancouver Island, Canada to the Fairweather Range of southern Alaska. The fault system represents a major transform boundary that separates the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate, and in many ways, can be considered an analog ‘sister’ fault to California’s San Andreas Fault. Early studies in the 1970s and 1980s based on historical marine geophysical data demonstrated that approximately 75 percent of the system is located offshore along the continental shelf-edge and slope, more than 20-50 km from land in eastern Gulf of Alaska. Historical seismicity records dating back to 1890 include dozens of large magnitude earthquakes, including eight events of magnitude greater than 7 and Canada’s largest earthquake on record (1949, M8.1). Finally, two recent earthquakes, a M7.8 in 2012 (“Haida Gwaii earthquake”) and M7.5 in 2013 (“Craig earthquake”) stimulated a substantial amount of scientific study of the QCFF and renewed concern over potential threats to coastal infrastructure and populations residing in southeastern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia. Survey goals included determining how fast the two sides of the fault move past each other (slip rate) and deciphering the historical movement of the fault. We also want to better understand how large earthquakes might trigger potentially dangerous underwater landslides. The purpose of this data is to provide a detailed bathymetric terrain model of a portion of the Queen Charlotte Fault and adjacent seafloor.

• Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

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