Landslide material may insulate glacier ice, raising its temperature towards the melting point. 1998. Kahiltna Glacier is the longest glacier in the park. This is the location of the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America. The November 3 Denali Fault earthquake was preceded by the magnitude 6.7 Nenana Mountain earthquake on October 23. While the fault rupture lasted for approximately 100 sec from its initiation to the arrest, its distal effects were felt for many days. 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. Every pair of SAR images used in the past has straddled both the major foreshocks and the mainshock. Accessed August 10, 2003. Measuring 7.9 in magnitude, the earthquake caused ground to shift beneath the pipeline 14 feet horizontally and 2.5 feet vertically. The Denali Fault is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. 103(B11):27,001-27,016. Random Facts About Denali Mount McKinley is the highest point on the North American continent, with its peak rising to 20,320 feet. 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 … In Denali, this group of faults is known as the Denali fault system, which arcs East-West through the park (and most of the state) for 1200 kilometers (720 miles). The Denali Fault System. The middle elevations feature tundra. The Denali Fault is located in Alaska's Denali National Park and to the east. Much of the lower reaches of the ice are covered in dirt and rocks that have been scoured off of the neighboring mountains on the slow journey from Denali… 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. 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. 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. Both quakes were centered along the Denali Fault. Usually, the earthquakes that are damaging to populations and structures occur close to the surface, so this is significant, said Price. By further studying and understanding the kind of deformation that split open the ground surface in Alaska, scientists hope to glean clues about earthquake damage potential along the San Andreas Fault. The lowest elevations of Denali National Park are a combination of forests. The principal rupture was a 210-kilometer-long section of the Denali fault, with horizontal shifts of up to nearly 9 meters (26 feet). 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. Small-scale deformations associated with the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake mapped by synthetic aperture radar interferometry phase gradients. The Denali fault is an active intraplate dextral strike-slip fault. During the afternoon of November 3, 2002, the water in Seattles Lake Union suddenly began sloshing hard enough to knock houseboats off their moorings. The Denali Fault System is refereed to as such because there are numerous faults present. Surface changes occurring between orbits (such as excessive rainfall or snowfall, or changes in vegetation) can cause noise in interferograms, making them less accurate. 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. 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. [2] The fault's rate of displacement varies from 1 mm to 35 mm per year.[3]. However, only 13,803 feet (4,207 meters) rise above sea level. The MW (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. When the earthquakes occurred, we wanted to see if we could determine how much ground motion there was, said Ford. This National Park includes part of a massive mountain range more than 600 miles long. [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. 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. Its epicenter was located on the Denali fault 22 km east of the M 7.9 event epicenter. You can also find deciduous taiga here. It illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike-slip faults. It has rock for-mations that have b… Alaska is the most geologically active part of the United States. The Denali Fault earthquake will give clues to the behavior of underground layers of rock known as the lower crust and mantle. The surface wave magnitude of this quake was 8.5, with an overall magnitude estimated around 7.0 to 7.9. 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. Abstract . 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. 40Ar/39Ar data from the Richardson mining district, Big Delta Quadrangle, Alaska - RDF 2020-11 Using a remote sensing technique called InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), Ford created a map of surface changes caused by the earthquake. Once the satellite acquired the image we needed, ASF downloaded and formatted it, and it was ready for us within hours, said Ford. The less time between repeat orbits, the less chance there is for change on the Earths surface, said Ford. The Muldrow Glacier is the park's longest and it is a great example of the power these behemoth ice masses have on the landscape. Notice it is not a Fitch fault as it does not follow the magmatic arc complex. One of the biggest challenges with SAR imagery is the infrequency of satellite overpasses. As many of you probably know, the land on Earth was once one giant landmass. Glaciers tend to flow down fault lines, eroding the ground surface and acting as conveyor belts for rock material. Originating on the previously unknown Susitna Glacier Fault, the earthquake shot eastward along the well-known Denali Fault at a speed of over 11,265 kilometers (7,000 miles) per hour before branching southeast onto the Totschunda Fault. It illuminates earthquake mechanics and hazards of large strike-slip faults. With InSAR, we can capture the whole picture, no matter where the epicenter of an earthquake is, said Ford. The ability to generate interferograms for each earthquake allowed Ford to investigate how the foreshock focused tectonic stresses and added strength to the mainshock. 3. It is located near the centre of the Alaska Range, with two summits rising above the Denali Fault, in south-central Alaska, U.S. Denali’s official elevation figure of 20,310 feet (6,190 metres), established by the United States Geological Survey in September Fault creep Interferometry is a good way to locate faults and see which sections are susceptible to deformation, said Evelyn Price, a research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. USGS Fact Sheet 014-03: Rupture in South-Central Alaska The Denali Fault Earthquake of 2002, NASA Goddard Space The Denali Fault is a major intracontinental dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault in western North America, extending from northwestern British Columbia, Canada to the central region of the U.S. state of Alaska. RADARSAT-1 repeats its orbit every 24 days, whereas ERS-1 and ERS-2 repeated every 35 days, said Ford. Price and David T. Sandwell. 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. Originating on the previously unknown Susitna Glacier Fault, the earthquake shot eastward along the well-known Denali Fault at a speed of over 11,265 kilometers (7,000 miles) per hour before branching southeast onto the Totschunda Fault. The M 7.9 Denali Fault event was preceded by the magnitude 6.7 Nenana Mountain event on October 23, 2002. Eastern Denali Fault Surface Trace Map, Eastern Alaska and Yukon, Canada By Adrian M. Bender and Peter J. Haeussler . It started on the previously unrecognized Susitna Glacier Thrust fault, a splay fault south of the McKinley strand of the Denali fault system (DFS). The range is highest at its mid-section, a vast region of towering peaks and massive glaciers that lies within Denali National Park and Preserve. 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