Contemporary Fault Mechanics in Southern Alaska

Abstract

Thin-shell finite-element models, constrained by a limited set of geologic slip rates, provide a tool for evaluating the organization of contemporary faulting in southeastern Alaska. The primary structural features considered in our analysis are the Denali, Duke River, Totschunda, Fairweather, Queen Charlotte, and Transition faults. The combination of fault configurations and rheological properties that best explains observed geologic slip rates predicts that the Fairweather and Totschunda faults are joined by an inferred southeast-trending strike-slip fault that crosses the St. Elias Mountains. From a regional perspective, this structure, which our models suggest slips at a rate of ∼8 mm/a, transfers shear from the Queen Charlotte fault in southeastern Alaska and British Columbia northward to the Denali fault in central Alaska. This result supports previous hypotheses that the Fairweather-Totschunda connecting fault constitutes a newly established northward extension of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather transform system and helps accommodate right-lateral motion (∼49 mm/a) of the Pacific plate and Yakutat microplate relative to stable North America. Model results also imply that the Transition fault separating the Yakutat microplate from the Pacific plate is favorably oriented to accommodate significant thrusting (23 mm/a). Rapid dip-slip displacement on the Transition fault does not, however, draw shear off of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather transform fault system. Our new modeling results suggest that the Totschunda fault, the proposed Fairweather-Totschunda connecting fault, and the Fairweather fault may represent the youngest stage of southwestward migration of the active strike-slip deformation front in the long-term evolution of this convergent margin.