Denali Fault Earthquake Photos 07 Nov 2002

All photos should be credited to the U.S. Geological Survey. The photos were taken on a survey along and near the Denali fault after Alaska’s November 3, 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

 

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Fault scarp near Augustana Creek, just west of Delta River. The offset was approximately 16 feet. Some cracks were up to 9 feet deep. A pressure ridge is visible in the background.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View eastward along Black Rapids Glacier. The Denali fault follows the trace of the glacier. These very large rockslides went a mile across the glacier on the right side. Investigations of the headwall of the middle landslide indicates a volume at least as large as that which fell, has dropped a meter or two and is almost ready to fall.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Trace of the Denali Fault running up the north side of the Canwell Glacier about 10 miles east of the Richardson Highway.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – A nicely visible fault trace near Chistochina River.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – A fault trace visible in trees southeast of Tok Cutoff Highway.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Liquefaction, spreading and settling at the north end of Fielding Lake, which is about 11 miles south of the Denali fault. Note the tilted buildings.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Near the head of Slate Creek, a stream bank offset of 3.3 m is visible; larger offset including drag along fault was roughly 11 feet.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Richardson Highway offset 8.5 feet in right-lateral sense. This location is near where supports to the Trans Alaska Pipeline sustained damage.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Richardson Highway on right, looking north. The Alaska Pipeline is on the left. Road offset reveals Denali fault location. The part of the pipeline designed to withstand movement along the Denali fault is in the middle part of the photograph. The fault runs beneath the pipeline near the
left edge of the photograph. Some damage to the pipeline occurred at this location.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Snow and ice avalanches on the Gakona Glacier. A fault trace is dimly visible in foreground.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Fault offset of Tok cutoff highway. On the ground researchers estimated offset as 23 feet.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Totschunda fault trace. A significant finding of the initial surveys was that the Totschunda fault ruptured during the earthquake. The Totschunda fault connects with Denali fault, is located at the southeastern extent of the rupture zone, and the fault has a more southeasterly trend than the Denali fault.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – A view northwest along the Totschunda fault at the SE most extent.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View westward up Black Rapids Glacier at large landslides.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View westward up Black Rapids Glacier at large landslides

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View westward up Black Rapids Glacier at large landslides

Screen friendly | Print friendly – View west over pass between Canwell and Chistochina Glaciers. Two fault traces here may indicate the glacier ice is influencing the fault trace.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – West fork of Chistochina Glacier. Denali fault trace here is parallel to the moraine, indicating that the structure of the glacier ice is influencing the surface trace of the fault.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – View north of Denali fault trace at Gillette Pass. This view shows that the surface rupture reoccupies the previous fault scarp. Also the right-lateral offset of these stream gullies has developed since deglaciation in the last 10,000 years or so.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – View down west fork of Chistochina Glacier. Denali fault can be seen crossing the glacier, Wrangell volcanoes in the distance.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Bone Creek, 5.5 meter offset measured here. The fault trace runs along the sharp bank edge at the right of the photo, from the bottom center toward the upper right.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - view of Denali fault trace in Chistochina River valley.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View southward toward Mt. McGinnis and two large landslides on the northeastern side. These slides had roughly 40 million cubic meters of material and travelled 10 km down glacier. This is the cover photo of the May 16th, 2003, Science.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Peter Haeussler examining the Denali fault trace on the Susitna Glacier to find matching ice surfaces to determine amount of fault offset

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Right step in Denali fault trace on Black Rapids Glacier caused extension of the glacier. Landslide debris in background

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Peter Haeussler prepares to measure the offset of a crevasse on the Canwell Glacier

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Helicopters and satellite phones were integral to the geologic field response. Here, Peter Haeussler is calling a seismologist to pass along the discovery of the Susitna Glacier thrust fault. View is to the north up the Susitna Glacier. The Denali fault trace lies in the background where the two landslides can be seen.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Patty Craw, DGGS, stands in front of the Susitna Glacier thrust fault. The November 3 earthquake started with an M7.2 earthquake along this fault.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Peter Haeussler measures offset of the Susitna Glacier thrust fault

Screen friendly | Print friendly - The Susitna Glacier thrust fault southwest of the toe of the Susitna Glacier. The rolled over tundra reflects the fault trace.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – The Denali fault offset crevasses on the Canwell Glacier

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Right steps in the Denali fault trace on the Canwell Glacier caused large rhombehedral chasms to form. Patty Craw in background. This photo was on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Landslide debris on the west fork of the Gakona Glacier. Note helicopter on right for scale! View to east.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Fault trace on Gakona Glacier. Tracks are from where geologists measured the fault offset.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View northward of mountain near Gillette Pass showing sackung features. Here the mountaintop moved downward like a keystone, producing an uphill-facing scarp. The main Denali fault trace is on the far side of the mountain and a small splay fault is out of view below the photo.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – View of central Alaska Range from the south.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Denali fault near headwaters of Chistochina River, view to the south. Dark blur at top of photo is rotor blade.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - Denali fault crossing stream near headwaters of Chistochina River. Stream offset was 4.8m. Perhaps better than the previous photo.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – The fault scarp created a waterfall in the transition region between the Denali fault and the Totschunda fault.

Screen friendly | Print friendly – The fault scarp created a waterfall in the transition region between the Denali fault and the Totschunda fault.

Screen friendly | Print friendly - View south along the Trans Alaska Pipeline in the zone where it was engineered for the Denali fault. The fault trace passes beneath the pipeline between the 2nd and 3rd slider supports at the far end of the zone. A large arc in the pipe can be seen in the pipe on the right, due to shortening of the zigzag-shaped pipeline trace within the fault zone. (it was snowing when the photo was taken)

Screen friendly | Print friendly – Surface faulting split this tree near the Trans Alaska Pipeline