skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: RAPID: Response to the 29 July 2021 Chignik Earthquake
The July 2021 Chignik earthquake (M8.2) was the biggest earthquake in the US since 1965 (Rat Islands). It ruptured a segment of the megathrust offshore of the Alaska Peninsula, which last ruptured in 1938, although there are some differences. It is also the middle of the recent AACSE project, which deployed 30 PASSCAL Broadbands, 75 OBSs, and 398 Nodes in 2018-8, making it among the best-characterized megathrust segments. This dataset contains the on-shore seismic aftershock survey, where we reoccupy several AACSE sites on the Shumagin Islands, Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak, with one new deployment on the Semidi islands close to the epicenter. Stations are deployed from Kodiak or Chignik. Sites are deployed in early August 2021, within 2 weeks of the mainshock, and continue until May-June 2022 when they are recovered. All sites have compact broadband sensors and are powered by Air-Alkaline Cells, which are relatively winter- and bear-resistant. All data are to be made open as rapidly as possible.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2147438
PAR ID:
10553222
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks
Date Published:
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: 100000 MB Other: SEED data
Size(s):
100000 MB
Location:
(East Bound Longitude:-151.464; North Bound Latitude:58.764; South Bound Latitude:53.744; West Bound Longitude:-161.308)
Institution:
Cornell University
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract The Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment (AACSE) is a shoreline-crossing passive- and active-source seismic experiment that took place from May 2018 through August 2019 along an ∼700  km long section of the Aleutian subduction zone spanning Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. The experiment featured 105 broadband seismometers; 30 were deployed onshore, and 75 were deployed offshore in Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) packages. Additional strong-motion instruments were also deployed at six onshore seismic sites. Offshore OBS stretched from the outer rise across the trench to the shelf. OBSs in shallow water (<262  m depth) were deployed with a trawl-resistant shield, and deeper OBSs were unshielded. Additionally, a number of OBS-mounted strong-motion instruments, differential and absolute pressure gauges, hydrophones, and temperature and salinity sensors were deployed. OBSs were deployed on two cruises of the R/V Sikuliaq in May and July 2018 and retrieved on two cruises aboard the R/V Sikuliaq and R/V Langseth in August–September 2019. A complementary 398-instrument nodal seismometer array was deployed on Kodiak Island for four weeks in May–June 2019, and an active-source seismic survey on the R/V Langseth was arranged in June 2019 to shoot into the AACSE broadband network and the nodes. Additional underway data from cruises include seafloor bathymetry and sub-bottom profiles, with extra data collected near the rupture zone of the 2018 Mw 7.9 offshore-Kodiak earthquake. The AACSE network was deployed simultaneously with the EarthScope Transportable Array (TA) in Alaska, effectively densifying and extending the TA offshore in the region of the Alaska Peninsula. AACSE is a community experiment, and all data were made available publicly as soon as feasible in appropriate repositories. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract The Alaska Amphibious Community Seismic Experiment (AACSE) comprised 75 ocean-bottom seismometers and 30 land stations and covered about 650 km along the segment of the subduction zone that includes Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula and the Shumagin Islands between May 2018 and September 2019. This unprecedented onshore-offshore dataset provided an opportunity to compile a greatly enhanced earthquake catalog for the region by both increasing the number of detected earthquakes and improving the accuracy of their source parameters. We use all available regional and AACSE campaign seismic data to compile an earthquake catalog for the region between Kodiak and the Shumagin Islands including the Alaska Peninsula (51° N–59° N, 148° W–163° W). We apply the same processing and reporting standards to additional picks and events as the Alaska Earthquake Center currently uses for compilation of the authoritative regional earthquake catalog. Over 7200 events (both newly detected and previously reported) have been processed with AACSE data. We added about 30% more events, 60% more phase picks, lowered the magnitude of completeness by about 0.2 on average across the region, and improved location errors. All data have been published in public data archives. In addition, we test the machine-learning earthquake detection and picking algorithm EarthquakeTransformer (EQT) on the AACSE seismic dataset, comparing EQT-determined P and S picks with the new catalog. EQT is entirely trained on land data, whereas AACSE is amphibious. Overall, EQT finds 59% of P and 63% of S arrivals in the catalog within 300 km epicentral distance. The percent of catalog picks detected by EQT varies inversely with earthquake epicentral distance, and EQT performs particularly poorly on data from earthquakes recorded by instruments in the outer rise. 
    more » « less
  3. In subduction zones, along‐strike and downdip variations in megathrust slip behavior are linked to changes in the properties of the subducting and overriding plates. Although marine geophysical methods provide insights into subduction zone structures, most surveys consist of sparse 2D profiles, limiting our understanding of first‐order controls. Here, we use active‐source seismic data to derive a 3D crustal‐scale P‐wave velocity model of the Alaska Peninsula subduction zone that encompasses both plates and spans the Semidi segment and SW Kodiak asperity. Our results reveal modest variations within the incoming plate, attributed to a series of fracture zones, seamounts and their associated basement swell, collectively contributing to plate hydration. Basement swell appears to modulate the distribution and type of sediment entering the trench, likely impacting observed variations in slip behavior. The overriding plate exhibits significant heterogeneity. The updip limit and width of the dynamic backstop are similar between the SW Kodiak asperity and eastern Semidi segment but differ significantly from the Western Semidi segment. These distinctions likely account for differences in earthquake rupture patterns and interseismic coupling among these segments. Additionally, high velocities in the mid‐lower forearc crust coincide with the location of the megathrust slip during the Mw 8.2 2021 Chignik event. We interpret these velocities as intracrustal intrusions that contributed to the deep rupture of the 2021 event. Our findings suggest that the contrasting structural and material properties of both the incoming and overriding plates influence the spatially complex and semi‐persistent segmentation of the megathrust offshore the Alaska Peninsula. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract A great earthquake struck the Semidi segment of the plate boundary along the Alaska Peninsula on 29 July 2021, re‐rupturing part of the 1938 rupture zone. The 2021MW8.2 Chignik earthquake occurred just northeast of the 22 July 2020MW7.8 Simeonof earthquake, with little slip overlap. Analysis of teleseismicPandSHwaves, regional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) displacements, and near‐field and far‐field tsunami observations provides a good resolution of the 2021 rupture process. During ∼60‐s long faulting, the slip was nonuniformly distributed along the megathrust over depths from 32 to 40 km, with up to ∼12.9‐m slip in an ∼170‐km‐long patch. The 40–45 km down‐dip limit of slip is well constrained by GNSS observations along the Alaska Peninsula. Tsunami observations preclude significant slip from extending to depths <25 km, confining all coseismic slip to beneath the shallow continental shelf. Most aftershocks locate seaward of the large‐slip zones, with a concentration of activity up‐dip of the deeper southwestern slip zone. Some localized aftershock patches locate beneath the continental slope. The surface‐wave magnitudeMSof 8.1 for the 2021 earthquake is smaller thanMS = 8.3–8.4 for the 1938 event. Seismic and tsunami data indicate that slip in 1938 was concentrated in the eastern region of its aftershock zone, extending beyond the Semidi Islands, where the 2021 event did not rupture. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract The eastern portion of the Shumagin gap along the Alaska Peninsula ruptured in anMW7.8 thrust earthquake on 22 July 2020. The megathrust fault space‐time slip history is determined by joint inversion of regional and teleseismic waveform data along with co‐seismic static Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) displacements. The rupture expanded westward and along‐dip from the hypocenter, located adjacent to the 1938MW8.2 Alaska earthquake, with slip and aftershocks extending into the gap about 180 to 205 km, respectively, at depths from 15 to 40 km. The deeper half of ~75% of the Shumagin gap experienced faulting. However, the patchy slip is significantly less than possible accumulated slip since the region's last major rupture in 1917, compatible with geodetic seismic‐coupling estimates of 10‐40% beneath the Shumagin Islands. The rupture terminated in the western region of very low seismic coupling. There was a regional decade‐scale decrease in b‐value prior to the 2020 event. 
    more » « less