Alaska Earthquake Hazards

Alaska is the most seismically active part of the United States, and thus what we can learn about earthquake processes can be applied to other earthquake prone parts of the U.S. and around the world.

Abstract

The goals of this project are to better understand the earthquake hazards of Alaska by characterizing active faults, identifying active faults and regions of active deformation, and by understanding the earthquakes and ground motions produced in earthquakes. There is also additional work to understand tsunami generation in selected locations.This project is working to maintain and improve earthquake monitoring in Alaska, with a focus on urban areas, critical facilities, and relatively likely sources of earthquakes of scientific and engineering significance. Data collected consist of earthquake ground motion time histories and information about the seismic instrumentation sites. These data are analyzed to provide earthquake locations, magnitudes, ShakeMaps, focal mechanisms, processed strong ground motions, response of instrumented buildings and other structures, and many other products. These data and products are used in Alaska as well as in the other states and worldwide. These earthquake data and products are of use to earthquake engineers, emergency responders, and earth scientists in many applications and research with the goal of mitigating earthquake hazards as mandated by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program.

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Products

Title	Type
Diatom Data from Coastal Environments on Montague Island, Alaska	Data
Radiocarbon Data from Coastal Environments on Montague Island, Alaska	Data
WiggleMatch: a spreadsheet for radiocarbon wiggle-matching	Other
Radiocarbon Data for Tree Ring Samples from Girdwood, Alaska	Data
Gridded Data from Multibeam Bathymetric Surveys of Eklutna, Kenai, and Skilak Lakes, Alaska	Data
Combined High-Resolution Topography and Bathymetry for Western Passage Canal, Near Whittier, Alaska	Data
Gridded Data from a 2011 Multibeam Bathymetric Survey of the Western Part of Passage Canal, Near Whittier, Alaska	Data
Radiocarbon Data for Fairweather Fault Investigation, Glacier Bay National Park, Southeast Alaska (2021)	Data
Geologic Inputs for the 2023 Alaska Update to the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM)	Data
Alaska Fault Trace Mapping, 2021	Data
Low-Temperature Thermochronometric Data along the Fairweather Fault, Southeast Alaska, 2015-2020	Data
Airborne Lidar-based Digital Elevation Models of Coastal Montague Island (Alaska) Acquired September 2018	Data
Alaska Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards	Project Website
Radiocarbon, Cesium-137, Grain Size, and X-ray Fluorescence Data for Tsunami Geology Investigation, Driftwood Bay, Umnak Island, Alaska (2018)	Data
Eastern Denali Fault surface trace map, eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada	Publication
Digital Elevation Models of Glacier Bay National Park, Between Lituya Bay and Icy Point, Alaska, Derived from Airborne Lidar Data Acquired in September 2015	Data
Photogrammetric Digital Elevation Model (1979-1989) Associated With Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada	Data
Digital Linework (1979-2008) Associated With Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada	Data
Aerial Photo Orthomosaics (1979-1989) Associated With Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada	Data
Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Adjacent Canada, 1978-2008	Data
Alaska Earthquake Information Center	Project Website
Recent Earthquakes	Project Website
Earthquake preparedness: Are you prepared for the next big earthquake in Alaska?	Publication

Contacts

Witter, Robert C., 907-786-7404

Status: onGoing
Start Year: 2007
End Year:

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Collaborators

United States Geological Survey

USGS Mission Area and Program

Natural Hazards → Earthquake Hazards

Keywords

Solid Earth > Tectonics > Faults