Henry R. Schmoll

Utility of radiocarbon-dated stratigraphy in determining late Holocene earthquake recurrence intervals, upper Cook Inlet region, Alaska

During the great 1964 earthquake, parts of coastal southern Alaska subsided tectonically as much as 2 m, and this led to burial of high-intertidal organic-rich marshes by low-intertidal and tidal silt. In the tectonically active part of upper Cook Inlet, the presence of stratigraphic sections containing numerous prehistoric interbedded layers of peat and silt suggests that such stratigraphy resulted when marshes and forests were similarly inundated and buried by intertidal and tidal sediment as a result of great, prehistoric earthquakes. This study tests the feasibility of using buried, radiocarbon-dated, late Holocene peat layers that are exposed in the intertidal zone of upper Cook Inlet to determine earthquake recurrence intervals, because estimates of the recurrence intervals of past earthquakes are needed for evaluation of the potential for future earthquakes. In a reconnaissance study of interbedded peat and silt, 65 conventional radiocarbon dates from peat and other organic material in 25 measured sections in the intertidal zone and one drillhole were used. Radiocarbon ages from the tops of peat beds cluster weakly but may indicate that regional subsidence events recurred at irregular intervals between about 200 to 800 radiocarbon yr within the past 3,200 radiocarbon yr. Conversion to calibrated ages does not alter this range substantially but may extend both ends of the age range. Coeval and correlative stratigraphy and radiocarbon data in the buried peat layers of upper Cook Inlet strongly suggest sudden, subsidence-induced layering. Because of problems associated with conventional radiocarbon dating, the complex stratigraphy of the study area, the tectonic setting, and regional changes in sea level, conclusions from the study do not permit precise identification of the timing and recurrence of paleoseismic events.

Bedding types in Holocene tidal channel sequences, Knik Arm, upper Cook Inlet, Alaska

ABSTRACT Uplifted convoluted and horizontal to subhorizontal beds of varying thickness in intertidal silt as old as 3,280 ± 90 yr B.P. are exposed in the banks of tidal channels of unknown depth in the intertidal zone in Knik Arm of Upper Cook Inlet. Internal discordances may occur both within convoluted beds and between convoluted and horizontal to subhorizontal beds. At the base of many convoluted beds, there is a rapid gradation upward into laminae which are severely deformed; that is, in some places, the contortions appear to have originated along a single bedding plane. Where the convoluted sequences are truncated by nearly horizontal sequences, the distortion must have resulted from syndepositional or postdepositional events prior to their burial by the overlying beds. Various forms of gravitational and tidal processes caused the deformation of the Knik Arm deposits; events triggering the movement of the sediment include any or all of the following: (1) seismic activity, (2) sediment or ice loading, (3) wave-induced liquefaction, (4) pore-pressure changes brought on by changing levels of tidewater, (5) undercutting of sediments by channel migration, and (6) freezing and thawing.

Summary of Quaternary geology of the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska

Abstract Quaternary geology of the Upper Cook Inlet region is dominated by deposits of glacier retreats that followed repeated advances from both adjacent and more distant mountains. At several levels high on the mountains, there are remnant glacial deposits and other features of middle or older Pleistocene age. Late Pleistocene lateral moraines along the Chugach Mountain front represent successively younger positions of ice retreat from the last glacial maximum. As the trunk glacier retreated northeastward up the Anchorage lowland, Cook Inlet transgressed the area, depositing the Bootlegger Cove Formation and Tudor Road deposits. The glacier then readvanced to form the latest Pleistocene Elmendorf Moraine, a prominent feature that trends across the Anchorage lowland. Extensive alluvium was deposited both concurrently and somewhat later as Cook Inlet regressed. Mountain valleys contain (1) locally preserved moraines possibly of early Holocene age; (2) poorly preserved moraine remnants of older late Holocene age; and (3) well-preserved moraines formed mainly during the Little Ice Age. Glaciers still occupy large parts of the mountains, the upper ends of some mountain valleys, and small cirques. Holocene landslide deposits, including those formed during the great Alaska earthquake of 1964, occur throughout the area, especially along bluffs containing the Bootlegger Cove Formation.