12 February 2004
Earthquakes from afar
One of the largest inland earthquakes to have hit North America in the past century — the magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake — occurred in Alaska on 3 November 2002. A new analysis of GPS and seismicity records from across the North American continent shows that the Denali earthquake triggered widespread seismicity rate increases throughout British Columbia and as far south as northern Utah and Nevada. This remarkably widespread effect is comparable only to the triggering caused by the magnitude 7.4 Landers, California earthquake of 1992. This suggests that the triggering seen at Landers did not reflect some peculiarity of the region or of the earthquake, but rather that remote earthquakes might be triggered by transient deformations almost anywhere, even in areas not obviously tectonically active.
Earthquake nucleation by transient deformations
caused by the M = 7.9 Denali, Alaska, earthquake
J. GOMBERG, P. BODIN, K. LARSON & H. DRAGERT
Nature 427, 621–624 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02335
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