Multichannel minisparker seismic-reflection data of field activity 2015-651-FA; Chatham Strait and Cross Sound, southeastern Alaska from 2015-08-03 to 2015-08-21

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected high-resolution multichannel seismic-reflection data in August of 2015, in the inland waterways between Glacier bay and Juneau including Chatham Strait and Cross Sound, in southeastern Alaska. The survey was designed to identify the spatial distribution of active faults, assess the regional evidence for active seabed faulting, and identify submarine landslide hazards. These data can be used to better image and understand the deformation history and earthquake/tsunami hazards of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault system, a major plate boundary strike-slip fault system that accommodates more than ninety percent of the relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates. In addition, the survey images submarine landslides in these inland waterways of southeastern Alaska in order to determine causes and age of seafloor failure. This work was funded by the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program’s Marine Geohazards Project and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG). The high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles of bedrock, sediment deposits and tectonic structure provide geologic information that is essential to hazard assessment, regional sediment management and coastal and marine spatial planning at Federal, State and local levels, as well as to future research on the geomorphic, sedimentary, tectonic and climatic record of southeastern Alaska.