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Geophysics and Seismology Commons

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Tectonics and Structure

Central Washington University

Series

Cascadia

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Geophysics and Seismology

2012 Haida Gwaii Quake: Insight Into Cascadia's Subduction Extent, Walter Szeliga Feb 2013

2012 Haida Gwaii Quake: Insight Into Cascadia's Subduction Extent, Walter Szeliga

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The limits of Cascadia were first defined to contain nearly the entire margin of the Pacific Northwest, from Cape Mendocino through the Alaska Panhandle [Schuchert, 1910; Schuchert and Barrell, 1914]. Since that time, the boundary of Cascadia has shrunk to become essentially synonymous with the region where the Juan de Fuca plate subducts beneath the North American plate. As a consequence, seismic hazard assessments in the Pacific Northwest have conventionally focused on the potential for large megathrust earthquakes along the interface of the Juan de Fuca and North American plates.


Moment Release Rate Of Cascadia Tremor Constrained By Gps, Ana C. Aguiar, Timothy I. Melbourne, Craig W. Scrivner Jul 2009

Moment Release Rate Of Cascadia Tremor Constrained By Gps, Ana C. Aguiar, Timothy I. Melbourne, Craig W. Scrivner

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A comparison of GPS and seismic analyses of 23 distinct episodic tremor and slip events, located throughout the Cascadia subduction zone over an 11-year period, yields a highly linear relationship between moment release, as estimated from GPS, and total duration of nonvolcanic tremor, as summed from regional seismic arrays. The events last 1–5 weeks, typically produce ~5 mm of static forearc deformation, and show cumulative totals of tremor that range from 40 to 280 h. Moment released by each event is estimated by inverting GPS-measured deformation, which is sensitive to all rates of tremor-synchronous faulting, including aseismic creep, for total …


Gps-Determination Of Along-Strike Variation In Cascadia Margin Kinematics: Implications For Relative Plate Motion, Subduction Zone Coupling, And Permanent Deformation, M. Meghan Miller, Daniel J. Johnson, Charles M. Rubin, Herb Dragert, Kelin Wang, Anthony Qamar, Chris Goldfinger Apr 2001

Gps-Determination Of Along-Strike Variation In Cascadia Margin Kinematics: Implications For Relative Plate Motion, Subduction Zone Coupling, And Permanent Deformation, M. Meghan Miller, Daniel J. Johnson, Charles M. Rubin, Herb Dragert, Kelin Wang, Anthony Qamar, Chris Goldfinger

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

High‐precision GPS geodesy in the Pacific Northwest provides the first synoptic view of the along‐strike variation in Cascadia margin kinematics. These results constrain interfering deformation fields in a region where typical earthquake recurrence intervals are one or more orders of magnitude longer than the decades‐long history of seismic monitoring and where geologic studies are sparse. Interseismic strain accumulation contributes greatly to GPS station velocities along the coast. After correction for a simple elastic dislocation model, important residual motions remain, especially south of the international border. The magnitude of northward forearc motion increases southward from western Washington (3–7 mm/yr) to northern …


Precise Measurements Help Gauge Pacific Northwest's Earthquake Potential, M. Meghan Miller, Herb Dragert, Elliot Endo, Jeffrey T. Freymueller, Chris Goldfinger, Harvey M. Kelsey, Eugene D. Humphreys, Daniel J. Johnson, Robert Mccaffrey, John S. Oldow, Anthony Qamar, Charles M. Rubin Jun 1998

Precise Measurements Help Gauge Pacific Northwest's Earthquake Potential, M. Meghan Miller, Herb Dragert, Elliot Endo, Jeffrey T. Freymueller, Chris Goldfinger, Harvey M. Kelsey, Eugene D. Humphreys, Daniel J. Johnson, Robert Mccaffrey, John S. Oldow, Anthony Qamar, Charles M. Rubin

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Except for the recent rumblings of a few moderate earthquakes and the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's, all has been relatively quiet on the Pacific Northwestern front. The Cascades region in the Pacific Northwest, a sporadically active earthquake and volcanic zone, still has great seismic potential [Atwater, 1987], as comparisons with other subduction zones around the world have shown [Heaton and Kanamori, 1984]. Recent tsunami propagation models [Satake, 1996] and tree ring studies suggest that the last great Cascadia earthquake occurred in the winter of 1700 A.D. and had a magnitude of −8.9. The …