Mapping Yakutat Subduction with Tectonic Tremor

Abstract:

Subduction of the Yakutat microplate (YAK) in south-central Alaska may be responsible for regional high topography, large slip during the 1964 earthquake, and the anomalous gap in arc volcanism, but the exact geodynamics and its relationship with the underlying Pacific Plate (PP) are not fully understood. Refraction data support distinct subducting layers, and both GPS and body wave tomography suggest the YAK extends from the Cook Inlet volcanoes in the west to the Wrangell volcanic field in the east. Earthquakes, however, are limited to normal faulting within the PP with an abrupt eastern boundary 80 km west of the inferred YAK edge, and more recent active source seismic data suggest subduction of one homogenous thickened oceanic plateau. Here, I perform a search for tectonic tremor to investigate the role of tremor and slow slip in the system. I scan continuous waveforms from 2007-2015 using all available data from permanent and campaign seismic stations in south-central Alaska. Using envelope cross-correlation, I detect and locate ~9,000 tectonic tremor epicenters, providing a map of the transition zone downdip of the 1964 earthquake. Tremor epicenters occur downdip of discrete slow slip events, and tremor rates do not correlate temporally with slow slip behavior. Depth resolution is poor, but horizontal locations are well constrained and spatially correlate with the velocity images of the YAK. Likewise, tremor extends 80 km further east than intraslab seismicity. Tremor swarms occur intermittently and manifest as ambient tremor. I interpret tremor to mark slow, semi-continuous slip occurring at the boundary between the YAK and North American plates, whose interface continues beyond the eastern edge of the PP. In this model, the YAK is welded to the underlying PP in the west, but extends past the eastern terminus of the PP. This geometry explains the correlation between tremor and the YAK, the discrepancy between deep seismicity and tremor, and the paucity of thrust events – convergence is accommodated by the YAK-North America interface, while earthquakes mark deformation within the PP. Finally, the model corroborates the eastern edge of the YAK and its role in controlling Wrangell magmatism and the gap in Aleutian arc volcanism.