Name
High-resolution seismicity and fault imaging of the Queen Charlotte Triple Junction Region from the PACSAFE Leg1 ocean-bottom seismometer network
Date & Time
Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Description
The Queen Charlotte Triple Junction Region (QCTJR) offshore British Columbia, links the Cascadia subduction zone, Queen Charlotte fault, and the Juan de Fuca Ridge through a complex system of discrete and diffuse deformation. It accommodates marked changes in deformation style over short spatial scales, but its structure and seismicity remain poorly constrained due to its large distance from land-based instrumentation. The Pacific Coast Seismic Assessment for Faults and Earthquakes (PACSAFE) is a multi-year Canadian ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) program designed to improve the state of knowledge through dense offshore monitoring. During Leg 1 (October 2023-July 2024), 26 broadband OBSs were deployed across the QCTJR and adjacent segments of the Revere-Dellwood fault (RDF) and Explorer Ridge (ER). A total of 23 instruments yielded continuous records for the entire deployment period. For phase picking we applied OBSTransformer, resulting in ~1.23 million P phases and ~3.11 million S phases. These arrivals were located using the maximum likelihood approach, generating a catalog >10,000 events. Highest-quality events were double-difference relocated yielding more than 5,000 robustly relocated events. The catalog reveals dense, previously unobserved microseismicity that delineates near-vertical fault strands, lineations perpendicular to the RDF, and multiple seismicity strands associated with the northern ER and transform system. Seismicity extends to ~20 km depth, with most activity between 5 and 10 km. These observations provide unprecedented constraints on deformation style and partitioning of slip and strain within the QCTJR, contributing to understanding diffuse triple junction geodynamics and refining seismic and tsunami hazard models for Canada's Pacific margin.
Location Name
Marion McCaine - Ondaatje Hall
Full Address
Dalhousie University
Halifax NS
Canada
Session Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract ID
243
Speaker Organization
Natural Resources Canada
Session Name
S2 (1 of 2)
Co-authors
Michael Bostock (UBC), Tiegan E. Hobbs (GSC, UBC, UVic), Alexandre Plourde (GSC), Riddhi Dave (GSC), Tianhaozhe Sun (GSC), Jeremy M Gosselin (GSC), Mladen Nedimovic (Dalhousie), Kelin Wang (GSC), Miao Zhang (Dalhousie), John Cassidy (GSC), Collin Paul (CHIS), Kristin Rohr (GSC), Graeme Cairns (NFSI), Katie Bosman (NFSI), John Thibodeau (NFSI), Cooper Stacey (GSC), Tom Carson (GSC), Gwyn Lintern (GSC), Honn Kao (GSC), Ed Nissen (UVic), Simon Peacock (UBC)
Presenting Author
Andrew J. Schaeffer, Geological Survey of Canada - Pacific Division