Seismogenesis in Eastern Canada

Abstract

Abstract The pattern of seismicity in eastern Canada depends on the presence of weak zones from previous major tectonic orogenies and how these weak zones are reactivated by local and regional stress fields and geophysical processes. Within the Canadian Shield, away from seismotectonic trends, there is a low level of seismicity and earthquakes tend to be small, less than M5. However, along seismically active trends, earthquakes as large as M7 have occurred. The seismotectonic features fall into four main categories: positive (uplift) continental basement linears; grabens formed by old plate separation; passive rifted margins offshore; and extinct spreading ridges. Two of the positive seismotectonic trends are the Boothia Uplift-Bell Arch that transects the northeastern part of the craton and northeastern Baffin Island, where the effects of postglacial rebound on the upper crustal stress field are the most pronounced. The St. Lawrence Valley (and interconnecting grabens) is a seismically active graben system that contains the most seismically active region (the Charlevoix zone) in eastern Canada. The extinct spreading ridge along the Labrador Sea and the Mesozoic rifted margin along Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea contain clusters of moderate seismicity. There are diffuse zones of moderate seismicity over some geological provinces (e.g. Central Metasedimentary Belt in western Quebec) apart from major tectonic features, a confined seismic zone (within an intrusion) in the Miramichi region and seismicity at the intersection of faults in northern Ontario. In the Nahanni region, which is situated near the boundary between the northeast Cordillera and the Interior Platform, the commencement of a noteworthy earthquake sequence with magnitude up to Ms 6.9 indicates considerable stress-strain build-up over a large area. There is an anticline in the epicentral area that is bounded by thrust faults and mountain ranges. In order to enhance our understanding of causative factors of current seismicity, it is necessary to determine in greater detail the tectonic forces and geophysical processes that are reactivating pre-weakened faults along the seismotectonic trends and over broad, diffuse seismogenic regions. Some of these factors are the rate of stress build-up, stress concentration at the intersection of faults and between mountain ranges, residual stress, the role of pore fluids, individual block movement, whether this movement is due to postglacial rebound or to other underlying viscoelastic phenomena and the rate of sediment deposition along the continental slope. Paleoseismicity is useful not only for the reconstruction of old large earthquakes but also for providing insight as to why surface fault offsets have not been observed in regions where large earthquakes (and associated high rate of microseisrnicity) have occurred within the past several hundred years.