Cesium-137 concentration data of percussion driven gravity cores collected in Alaskan lakes and fjords following the 2018 Anchorage earthquake

Identification of fault-related submarine hazards is a primary mission of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Intraslab earthquakes, which occur at depth within the subducting plate, can cause intense shaking at the Earth’s surface, but do not cause surficial faulting or result in significant land level changes. The seismic shaking associated with intraslab earthquakes can remobilize subaqueous sediment and lead to gravity driven sediment flows, potentially creating a record of past shaking from these events. To gain a better understanding of the conditions that produce seismically triggered deposits in subaqueous basins the USGS collected Chirp seismic and sediment cores from several lakes and fjords following the M7.1 2018 Anchorage earthquake. These data are intended to further our understand of geologic hazard in southcentral Alaska, improve risk assessments for local communities and critical infrastructure, and to provide data for future research on regional paleoseismic records in southcentral Alaska.