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Spatially limited mud turbidites on the Cascadia margin: segmented earthquake ruptures?

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  • Abstract: A series of 23 thin, mostly mud-silt turbidites are found interspersed between larger, well-dated and regionally correlated paleoseismic sandy turbidites that extend along most of the Cascadia margin, northwestern United States. Investigation of the structure, distribution, and sedimentology of these thin mud-silt units supports the interpretation of these units as turbidites originating on the continental slope. Interpretation of mud turbidites is inhibited by bioturbation and lower response to analytical and imaging techniques; nevertheless most of the 23 interpreted beds exhibit most of the characteristics of coarser turbidites. These characteristics include sharp bases, fining upward sequences, darker color, increased gamma and CT density and magnetic susceptibility relative to the hemipelagic background, sparse microfossils, high lithic content, and evidence of transport from marine sources on the continental slope. New core data from sites south of Rogue Apron indicate that sandy and muddy turbidites may be correlated at least 150 km south to Trinidad Plunge Pool for the period similar to 4800 yr BP to present. Many of the mud turbidites initially described at Rogue Apron coarsen southward, becoming sandy turbidites. High-resolution Chirp seismic profiles reveal that turbidite stratigraphy along the base of the southern Cascadia continental slope is continuous, with little variation for at least 240 km along strike. The Chirp data show that turbidites along the Cascadia base of slope are ubiquitous, and likely not sourced solely from submarine canyon mouths, but may also have been delivered to the proximal abyssal plain as sheet flows from the open continental slope and coalescing local sources. Regional stratigraphy reveals that hemipelagic sedimentation rates and total Holocene turbidite thickness and mass are similar at widely separated sites, yet the total thickness of the Holocene section is greater by a factor of two in southern Cascadia. This difference is primarily due to the presence of the 21 mud and two additional sandy turbidites. We conclude that the Cascadia mud turbidites are ubiquitous along southern Cascadia only, with only one likely example of a correlated turbidite limited to the northern margin. Eight onshore sites including three marsh sites and five lakes include potential seismogenic correlatives of the southern Cascadia turbidites. In all, the onshore sites may have recorded > 80% of the events attributed to plate boundary earthquakes offshore during the period 0-6000 yr ago. Slope stability calculations suggest that earthquakes of M-W = 7.0 or greater should generate ground accelerations sufficient to destabilize open slopes and canyon heads with or without excess pore fluid pressure. Estimates of Mw for segmented ruptures are in the range of 7.4-8.7, exceeding the slope stability criteria for typical slopes by at least a factor of similar to four.
  • Keywords: Northern California, Physical properties, Radiocarbon age calibration, California Continental-Margin, Subduction zone, San Andreas Fault
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  • Goldfinger, C., Morey, A., Black, B., Beeson, J., Nelson, C., & Patton, J. (2013). Spatially limited mud turbidites on the cascadia margin: Segmented earthquake ruptures? Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 13(8), 2109-2146. doi:10.5194/nhess-13-2109-2013
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  • 13
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  • 8
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  • The initial funding for this study was provided by the Coastal and Marine Geology Team of the US Geological Survey. The primary funding for field work and subsequent research has been provided by NSF Awards EAR 9803081 EAR-0001074, EAR-0107120, EAR-0440427 and OCE-0550843 (reservoir model development) and OCE 0850931 (2009 cruise). US Geological Survey substantially supported the work through Cooperative Agreements 6-7440-4790, 98HQAG2206 and 99HQAG0192; and US Geological Survey National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program grants 02HQGR0019, 03HQGR0037, 06HQGR0149, and 07HQGR0064 to Goldfinger, and 02HQGR0043, 03HQGR0006, and 06HQGR0020 to Nelson. The American Chemical Society awarded support to PhD student Joel Johnson for core collection and analysis at Hydrate Ridge under ACS PRF 37688-AC8.
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