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Mazzotti et al. 2003
Mazzotti, S., Hyndman, R.D., Flück, P., Smith, A.J. and Schmidt, M. (2003). Distribution of the Pacific/North America motion in the Queen Charlotte Islands-S. Alaska plate boundary zone. Geophysical Research Letters 30: doi: 10.1029/2003GL017586. issn: 0094-8276.

We present GPS data that constrain the distribution of the relative Pacific/North America motion across the Queen Charlotte Islands-Alaska Panhandle margin (NW North America). Velocities from a network of 22 campaign and permanent sites indicate that the Pacific/North America transpressive motion is mostly accommodated along the locked Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault. A significant portion (6--7 mm/yr) of the relative plate motion is taken up by distributed dextral shear across a ~200 km wide region of the margin. Two models have been proposed to describe how the Pacific/North America convergence is accommodated off the Queen Charlotte Islands: Internal shortening vs. underthrusting of the Pacific plate. Although the GPS data cannot discriminate between the models, they provide strong constraints on the convergence distribution. The significant non-transient motion of GPS sites along the central British Columbia-southern Alaska margin has implications for seismic hazard and tectonic evolution models of the Canadian Cordillera.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Geodesy and Gravity, Crustal movements--interplate, Geodesy and Gravity, Crustal movements--intraplate, Geodesy and Gravity, Seismic deformations, Tectonophysics, Earth's interior--composition and state, Tectonophysics, Plate boundary--general
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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