A STUDY OF HISTORIC EARTHQUAKES OF INTERIOR ALASKA'S SEISMIC ZONES

The Fairbanks, Minto Flats and Salcha Seismic Zones of interior Alaska lie north of the Northern Foothills fold and thrust belt, take up the deformation between the Denali and Kaltag-Tintina fault systems, and occur in a swampy and densely vegetated region in which surface expressions of fault ruptures cannot be easily found or mapped. It is therefore poorly understood how stress is transferred between these systems. Digitization of seismograms from historic (pre-1971) large-magnitude (M>6.5) earthquakes from interior Alaska will enable waveform modeling and estimations of source parameters. The events will be compared to more recent seismicity of the Fairbanks, Minto Flats, and Salcha Seismic Zone and correlated to faults that have ruptured more recently in smaller earthquakes. Preliminary results suggest stress can be transferred between the active faults of the Fairbanks, Minto Flats and Salcha Seismic Zones. Further stress modeling will be useful for updating seismic hazard assessments within interior Alaska.