A study of the shallow seismicity in the Anchorage region, south-central, Alaska

The complex geology of the Anchorage region contributes to the difficulty in understanding how the North American crust is deforming in response to the oblique collision of North America with the Pacific plate. Previous earthquake studies in the Anchorage Region have shown little to no correlation between earthquakes and known large-scale faults, such as the Castle Mountain Fault system. In this study, I used the Double Difference earthquake relocation technique to identify seismogenic structures in more detail, thus contributing information needed for future seismic hazard assessment of this area. To investigate these potential shallow seismogenic structures, I use a set of events reported by the Alaska Earthquake Information Center—(AEIC). These events occurred between July 1988 and December 1999, have local magnitudes between 2.0 and 5.0 and depths of 35 km or less. I began the relocation process with 1320 events and ended up with 1255 events that had well constrained hypocenters. (Abstract shortened by UMI.