A series of “hidden” geological hazards has been uncovered in the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park, including active faults that could pose earthquake threats to communities in the area.
A series of “hidden” geological hazards has been uncovered in the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park, including active faults that could pose earthquake threats to communities in the area.
While researchers aren t sure if people should be too concerned just yet, they should know that the potential exists for big earthquakes in the Bitterroot Valley.
Upper-plate normal faults along forearcs often accumulate slip during > Mw 6 earthquakes. Such normal faults traverse the forearc of the Hellenic Subduction System (HSS) in Greece and are the focus of this study. Here, we use detailed field-mapping and analysis of high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to study 42 active normal faults on the islands of Kythira and Antikythira in the Aegean Sea. Onshore fault kinematic data are complemented by seabed bathymetry mapping of ten offshore faults that extend along the Kythira-Antikythira Strait (KAS). We find that normal faults in the KAS have lengths of ~1-58 km and scarps ranging in height from 1.5 m to 2.8 km, accommodating, during the Quaternary, trench-orthogonal (NE-SW) extension of ~2.46 ± 1.53 mm/a. Twenty-eight of these faults have ruptured since the Last Glacial Maximum, with their postglacial (16±2 ka) displacement rates (0.19-1.25 mm/a) exceeding their Quaternary (≤ 0.7-3 Ma) rates (0.03-0.37 mm/a) by more