Interim report on the St. Elias, Alaska earthquake of 28 February 1979

Lahr, John C.; Plafker, George; Stephens, C. D.; Foglean, K. A.; Blackford, M. E.

Abstract:

On 28 February 1979 an earthquake with surface wave magnitude (Ms) of 7.7 (W. Person, personal communication, 1979) occurred beneath the Chugach and St. Elias mountains of southern Alaska (fig. 1). This is a region of complex tectonics resulting from northwestward convergence between the Pacific and North American plates. To the east, the northwest-trending Fairweather fault accommodates the movement with dextral slip of about 5.5 cm/yr (Plafker, Hudson, and others, 1978); to the west, the Pacific plate underthrusts Alaska at the Aleutian trench, which trends southwestward (Plafker 1969). The USGS has operated a telemetered seismic network in southern Alaska since 1971 and it was greatly expanded along the eastern Gulf of Alaska in September 1974. The current configuration of stations is shown in Figure 9. Technical details of the network are available in published earthquake catalogs (Lahr, Page, and others, 1974; Fogleman, Stephens, and others, 1978). Preliminary analysis of the data from this network covering the time period September 1, 1978 through March 10, 1979, as well as worldwide data for the main shock will be discussed in this paper.

Genre:

USGS Numbered Series

ProdID:

7259

Citation Author:

Lahr, John C.; Plafker, George; Stephens, C. D.; Foglean, K. A.; Blackford, M. E.

Citation Contributing Office:

Earthquake Science Center

Citation Datum:

Citation Day:

Citation Edition:

Citation Editor:

Citation End Page:

Citation Issue:

Citation Keywords:

Citation Language:

ENGLISH

Citation Larger Work Title:

Citation LatN:

Citation LatS:

Citation LonE:

Citation LonW:

Citation Month:

Citation No Pagination:

Citation Number Of Pages:

Citation Online Only Flag:

Citation Phsyical Description:

35 p. :ill., maps ; 28 cm.

Citation Projection:

Citation Public Comments:

Citation Publisher:

U.S. Geological Survey

Citation Series:

Open-File Report

Citation Series Code:

OFR

Citation Series Number:

79-670

Citation Search Results Text:

Interim report on the St. Elias, Alaska earthquake of 28 February 1979; 1979; OFR; 79-670; Lahr, John C.; Plafker, George; Stephens, C. D.; Foglean, K. A.; Blackford, M. E.

Citation Start Page:

Citation Volume:

Citation Year:

1979

Type:

citation/reference

Text:

Interim report on the St. Elias, Alaska earthquake of 28 February 1979; 1979; OFR; 79-670; Lahr, John C.; Plafker, George; Stephens, C. D.; Foglean, K. A.; Blackford, M. E.