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Upper-plate splay fault earthquakes along the Arakan subduction belt recorded by uplifted coral microatolls on northern Ramree Island, western Myanmar (Burma)
- Source :
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 484:241-252
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Upper-plate structures that splay out from the megathrusts are common features along major convergent plate boundaries. However, their earthquake and tsunami hazard potentials have not yet received significant attention. In this study, we identified at least one earthquake event that may have been produced by an upper-plate splay fault offshore western Myanmar, based on U–Th ages of uplifted coral microatolls. This event is likely an earthquake that was documented historically in C.E. 1848, with an estimated magnitude between 6.8 and 7.2 based on regional structural characteristics. Such magnitude is consistent with the observed co-seismic uplift amount of ∼0.5 m. Although these events are smaller in magnitude than events produced by megathrusts, they may produce higher earthquake and tsunami hazards for local coastal communities due to their proximity. Our results also indicate that earthquake events with co-seismic uplift along the coast may not necessarily produce a flight of marine terraces. Therefore, using only records of uplifted marine terraces as megathrust earthquake proxies may overlook the importance of upper-plate splay fault ruptures, and underestimate the overall earthquake frequency for future seismic and tsunami hazards along major subduction zones of the world.
- Subjects :
- geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Subduction
Coral
Magnitude (mathematics)
Fault (geology)
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
Megathrust earthquake
01 natural sciences
Geophysics
Space and Planetary Science
Geochemistry and Petrology
Tsunami hazard
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Submarine pipeline
Convergent boundary
Geology
Seismology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 0012821X
- Volume :
- 484
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........e945a261341e71d23b31b07ca0d64f6c