Start |Author Index | View Uploaded Presentations | Meeting Information

Southeastern Section - 65th Annual Meeting - 2016

Paper No. 2-1
Presentation Time: 8:10 AM

SEISMOTECTONICS OF POTENTIAL SEISMIC HAZARDS IN THE SOUTH CAROLINA COASTAL PLAIN


DERRICK, Erin and KNAPP, James H., Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of South Carolina, 701 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29208, ederrick@geol.sc.edu

Evaluating seismic hazard in South Carolina poses difficulties due to the long recurrence intervals between major intraplate earthquakes compared to the relatively short written historical record. The ~7 Mw 1886 Charleston, SC earthquake is the only large magnitude earthquake in South Carolina’s recorded history; however paleoseismological studies of sandblows in the Coastal Plain suggest at least six earthquakes in the Holocene with large enough magnitudes to cause these liquefaction features. The potential for offshore hazards was highlighted by the 2002 4.4 M earthquake 25 km offshore Seabrook Island, SC and may indicate active seismicity on the Helena Banks Fault, an extensive Mesozoic age fault zone offshore the South Carolina coast. Identifying the seismotectonic structure at the epicenter of the 1886 earthquake, the Helena Banks Fault, and other locations experiencing present day seismicity may assist in locating other areas of seismic hazard.

Session No. 2

T2. Crustal Structure, Tectonics, and Geologic Evolution of the Southeastern U.S. I
Thursday, 31 March 2016: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Richland A (Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 3
doi: 10.1130/abs/2016SE-273158
© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
Back to: T2. Crustal Structure, Tectonics, and Geologic Evolution of the Southeastern U.S. I
Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>