Both quakes were centered along the Denali Fault. Along the Denali Fault, lateral and vertical offset movement is taking place. However, many scientists believe that the Hayward Fault is connected to the Calaveras Fault to the south, the Rodgers Creek Fault to the north and to the Maacama Fault still farther north. It is located near the center of the Alaska Range, with two summits rising above the Denali Fault, in south-central Alaska, U.S. Denali lies about 130 miles (210 km) north-northwest of Anchorage and some 170 miles (275 km) southwest of Fairbanks in Denali National Park and Preserve, which covers six million acres (24,281 square km) of land. The earthquake began at 1:12 p.m. Alaska local time, and was centered approximately 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of Fairbanks and 283 kilometers (176 miles) north of Anchorage. 40Ar/39Ar data from the Richardson mining district, Big Delta Quadrangle, Alaska - RDF 2020-11 In the two hours since the primary earthquake, nearly half a dozen aftershocks of 4.0 or greater occurred. Due to Alyeska’s earthquake protection, the Denali Fault earthquake did not compromise the integrity of the pipeline. Small-scale deformations associated with the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake mapped by synthetic aperture radar interferometry phase gradients. Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada By Adrian M. Bender and Peter J. Haeussler . But ERS-1 failed in 2000, and ERS-2 began malfunctioning shortly afterwards. Usually, the earthquakes that are damaging to populations and structures occur close to the surface, so this is significant, said Price. Surface changes occurring between orbits (such as excessive rainfall or snowfall, or changes in vegetation) can cause noise in interferograms, making them less accurate. ASF gave us priority. The additional weight of rocks and dirt can also cause greater pressure and melting at the base of the glacier, increasing the likelihood that a glacier may surge forward. Accessed August 10, 2003. It is convenient to view the fault as a single curve, but it is actually comprised of clusters of fault patterns. Flight Center. The resulting surface rupture was approximately 336 kilometers (209 miles) long, and it cut through streams, divided forests, opened chasms in roads, and even generated fault traces visible across several glaciers. Like most earthquakes of its size, it was complex, consisting of several subevents. Shaking at the epicenter lasted approximately 1.5 to 2 minutes, but in Fairbanks the duration of the earthquake was over 3 minutes. It began with thrusting on the previously unrecognized Susitna Glacier fault, continued with right-slip … [citation needed], Alaska's network of faults is a result of tectonic activity; the Pacific Plate is actively subducting (sliding under) the North American Plate, and the Denali Fault is located on the boundary between the two plates. In addition, both of the Denali Fault earthquakes occurred at a depth in the Earth’s crust of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) or less, which is considered relatively shallow. The M W (moment magnitude) 7.9 Denali fault earthquake on 3 November 2002 was associated with 340 kilometers of surface rupture and was the largest strike-slip earthquake in North America in almost 150 years. The top of the mantle makes up a thin skin on the surface of the Earth. Facts about Denali National Park 2: the landscape of Denali National Park. In addition, both of the Denali Fault earthquakes occurred at a depth in the Earths crust of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) or less, which is considered relatively shallow. (Also an important part of fossil location and evolution, but that’s a whole other story.) Shaking at the epicenter lasted approximately 1.5 to 2 minutes, but in Fairbanks the duration of the earthquake was over 3 minutes. Kahiltna Glacier is the longest glacier in the park. The Hayward Fault is thought capable of generating a magnitude 7.5 quake. The November 3 Denali Fault earthquake was preceded by the magnitude 6.7 Nenana Mountain earthquake on October 23. The principal rupture was a 210-kilometer-long section of the Denali fault, with horizontal shifts of up to nearly 9 meters (26 feet). The Alaska Range is a 600-mile long arc of mountains that stretches from the Alaska-Canada border all the way to the Alaska Peninsula. In 2015, the mountain was officially changed to the name that the locals always referred to it as; Denali. As a final tribute to the active tectonics of Alaska, a series of faults have fractured the park and most of the state in the last 100 million years. The quake was the largest on the Denali Fault since at least 1912 and among the strongest earthquakes recorded in North America in the last 100 years. The M W (moment magnitude) 7.9 Denali fault earthquake on 3 November 2002 was associated with 340 kilometers of surface rupture and was the largest strike-slip earthquake in North America in almost 150 years. Now considered a foreshock of the larger quake, the October earthquake caused no surface ruptures. When Denali was remeasured in 2015, some believed that the mountain was shrinking due to … This is the location of the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America. Accessed June 26, 2003. It illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike-slip faults. We want to know how earthquakes affect the behavior of these glaciers and how the glaciers are moving and responding, said Ford. While the November 3 earthquake in Alaska caused few injuries and no deaths, it did cause numerous landslides and damaged roads and bridges at a cost of at least $25 million. Even though the earthquakes occurred in a sparsely populated area, scientists are keeping an eye on the Denali Fault because of its similarities to the San Andreas Fault, located near heavily populated areas in California. However, that skin is not all in one piece, it is a… The earthquake began at 1:12 p.m. Alaska local time, and was centered approximately 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of Fairbanks and 283 kilometers (176 miles) north of Anchorage. In addition, landslides completely covered parts of several Alaskan glaciers after the November 3 Denali Fault earthquake. It started with thrust (upward) motion on a previously unknown fault, now called the Susitna Glacier Fault. Denali Fault By: Paige Lewicki and Nina Bruno Denali Fault Earthquake November 3rd, 2002 7.9 magnitude Triggered earthquakes at Yellowstone Facts Strike-Slip Fault Located in Alaska Pacific Plate is subductig under the North American Plate Earthquakes Nenana Mountain earthquake Prior to the 2002 earthquakes, the Denali Fault was known to be seismically active, but scientists werent sure if it was capable of generating a large earthquake. The range is also part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and the Denali Fault that runs along the southern edge of the range is responsible for a number of earthquakes. We map the 385-kilometer (km) long surface trace of the right-lateral, strike-slip Denali Fault between the Totschunda-Denali Fault intersection in Alaska, United States and the village of Haines Junction, Yukon, Canada. So Ford and his colleagues turned to SAR imagery from RADARSAT-1 (a satellite managed by the Canadian Space Agency), which had never before been applied in earthquake interferometry. The Denali Fault System is refereed to as such because there are numerous faults present. Because earthquakes tend to recur along faults, an earthquake that relieves stress on one part of a fault may actually increase stress on other parts of a fault system. Interferometry involves taking Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images from two different dates and precisely calculating the differences between the two. Glaciers tend to flow down fault lines, eroding the ground surface and acting as conveyor belts for rock material. M7.9 Earthquake on November 3, 2002. While the fault rupture lasted for approximately 100 sec from its initiation to the arrest, its distal effects were felt for many days. [4] During the afternoon of November 3, 2002, the water in Seattle's Lake Union suddenly began sloshing hard enough to knock houseboats off their moorings. [2], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Distribution, nature, and origin of Neogene–Quaternary magmatism in the northern Cordilleran volcanic province, Canada", 10.1130/0016-7606(2000)112<1280:dnaoon>2.0.co;2, "The 2002 Denali Fault Earthquake, Alaska: A Large Magnitude, Slip-Partitioned Event", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Denali_Fault&oldid=962479519, Articles that may contain original research from June 2015, All articles that may contain original research, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015, Alaska articles missing geocoordinate data, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 14 June 2020, at 09:04. Because the earthquake released most of its energy on the sparsely populated eastern end of the fault, Alaska's major cities were spared serious damage. The Denali fault system is widely recognized as transpressional due to the presence of the Denali fault, a major, active, right-lateral fault, and subparallel zones of thrust faults and fault-related folding along both the north and south flanks of the Alaska Range. Alaska is the most geologically active part of the United States. 3. You can also find deciduous taiga here. Alaskas Denali Fault was on the move, jostling the state with a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The steep north face of Denali, known as the Wickersham Wall, rises 15,000 feet from its base, and is a result of this relatively recent movement. It has rock for-mations that have b… ASFs fortuitous collection of images allowed Ford and his colleagues to make a series of three interferograms: one for each of the earthquakes, and a cumulative interferogram that includes both earthquakes. Unlike the other national parks in Alaska, Denali existed in a smaller form before the Alaska Native Interests Land Conservation Act in 1980 created the 8 Alaskan national parks. Over the billions of years, the land broke apart and created what we recognize today. Now we can actually separate the two quakes, said Ford. The middle elevations feature tundra. 40Ar/39Ar data from the Richardson mining district, Big Delta Quadrangle, Alaska - RDF 2020-11 Denali lies about 130 miles (210 km) north-northwest of Anchorage and some 170 miles (275 km) southwest of Fairbanks in Denali National Park and Preserve. The ability to generate interferograms for each earthquake allowed Ford to investigate how the foreshock focused tectonic stresses and added strength to the mainshock. The Denali-Totschunda fault is a major dextral (right lateral) strike-slip system, similar in scale to the San Andreas fault system. The M 7.9 Denali Fault event was preceded by the magnitude 6.7 Nenana Mountain event on October 23, 2002. You probably also know about the different layers of the Earth. The lowest elevations of Denali National Park are a combination of forests. The mountain is essentially a giant block of granite that was lifted above Earth’s crust during a period … Then the rupture transferred onto the main strand of the DFS and continued as a right-lateral strike-slip event for ~220 km until it … Because some of the faults in southeast Alaska are heavily glaciated, Ford and his colleagues are also interested in studying the relationship between glaciers and structural geology. Image courtesy of the USGS. [2] The fault's rate of displacement varies from 1 mm to 35 mm per year.[3]. The resulting image, called an interferogram, shows where deformation occurred on the Earths surface. Random Facts About Denali Mount McKinley is the highest point on the North American continent, with its peak rising to 20,320 feet. And you cant measure ground motion on the scale of millimeters over that kind of area unless you use interferometry.. After the November 3 earthquake, Ford and his colleagues contacted the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) in Fairbanks. Notice it is not a Fitch fault as it does not follow the magmatic arc complex. No oil spilled, and pipeline operations resumed after minor repairs. The Denali Fault and other active faults in Alaska encroach on populated areas and critical infrastructure, including existing and proposed oil and natural gas pipelines. Using a remote sensing technique called InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), Ford created a map of surface changes caused by the earthquake. USGS Fact Sheet 014-03: Rupture in South-Central Alaska The Denali Fault Earthquake of 2002, NASA Goddard Space It illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike-slip faults. The Denali Fault is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. According to Ford, “The Denali Fault earthquake was the ‘big one’ for Alaska.” The cracks in the Earth’s surface along parts of the fault were up to 6.7 meters (22 feet) wide, which would have caused considerable damage to a more heavily populated area, such as California. In that respect, RADARSAT-1 had an advantage over the ERS missions. : Rupture in South-Central Alaska the Denali Fault earthquake will give clues the. Complex, consisting of several Alaskan glaciers after the November 3 Denali Fault runs up north! 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