After 12,000 years of calm, a seismic explosion is preparing in northwest Canada while an old geological fault becomes agitated. The Tintina fault, which extends over the territory of Yukon and ends in the center of Alaska, has become so tense that it could trigger powerful earthquakes in the future.
A recent study published in Geophysical research letters Explains how this disturbing threat has gone snow over time, while the Tintina flaw continues to show signs of buckling under pressure. Due to the sustained accumulation of deformation, the flaw could possibly reach a breaking point, producing future earthquakes of 7.5 or more which could endanger the cities and infrastructures of the Yukon.
The story of Tintina’s failure
Throughout history, the Tintina Fauteur was mainly sleeping. The same goes for a neighboring fault, the Faille de Denali, which was the site of an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 which Treated Alaska In 2002 – it turned out to be the largest inner earthquake in North America in 150 years.
Tintina’s fault only caused minor earthquakes in recent years; However, the researchers involved in the study wanted to go back from the clock and see when it was active for the last time in ancient times.
“Over the past two decades, there have been some small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina fault, but nothing to suggest that he is capable of strong ruptures,” said a recent doctorate Theron Finley. graduate at the University of Victoria, in a statement. “The growing availability of high -resolution data has encouraged us to re -examine the fault, looking for evidence of prehistoric earthquakes in the landscape.”
Find out more: Do you live near an earthquake area? You could be surprised
The consequences of ancient earthquakes
To find evidence of old earthquakes along the fault, the researchers looked for faults of fault, a characteristic landscape caused by large and / or shallow earthquakes. Fault scarpets Act like recordings of geological activity in the past, although they are only a few meters wide and high, and generally difficult to find in highly wooded areas.
The researchers were able to identify a series of flawing transfers within 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) of Dawson City in the west of the Yukon with the help of high -resolution topographic data and Lidar surveys drawn from the sky.
They found two evidence that suggests that large earthquakes occurred earlier in the quaternary period, the current period of geological history. First of all, they observed forms of glacial relief of 2.6 million years which are offset laterally through the 1000 -meter fault escarpment (3,280 feet). Other reliefs aged 132,000 years are compensated laterally 75 meters (approximately 246 feet).
This movement along the remains of flaw means that the fault has slipped several times into the quaternary due to earthquakes. However, the greatest earthquakes slowed down at some point; This is obvious in the reliefs of 12,000 years which are not offset by the fault, indicating that no significant rupture has since occurred.
A geological time bomb that draws
Tintina’s fault, however, is ready to wake up after all these years. The flaw has a low slip rate, but it has still accumulated a constraint at an average rate of 0.2 to 0.8 millimeter per year, according to the researchers. And while low -flow flaws produce more sporadically earthquakes when they occur, they tend to be particularly ferocious.
“We have determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed 7.5 magnitude,” Finley said in a statement. “Based on the data, we think that the fault can be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accumulated a slip deficit, or an accumulation of tension of six meters in the past 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake.”
A magnitude of 7.5 or more of earthquake would threaten the city of Dawson and also lead to significant damage to nearby highways and mining infrastructure. In addition, a earthquake From this level would probably aggravate the already unstable landslides. The researchers say that the data they have collected will be integrated into the national model of the seismic risks of Canada to prepare any earthquake that could strike the Yukon in the years to come.
Find out more: Solar heat can have an impact on the seismic activity of the earth, facilitating the predictions of the tremors
Article Sources
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Jack Knudson is a deputy editor -in -chief to discover with a strong interest in environmental sciences and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication and previously interned at Recycling TODAY magazine.
