Latest news with #QuaternaryPeriod
Time of India
a day ago
- Science
- Time of India
Earthquake risk in Canada! Yukon fault shows signs of awakening after 12,000 years, threatening thousands
A groundbreaking geological study has revealed a previously underestimated natural threat lurking beneath Canada's remote northern frontier. The Tintina fault, stretching over 1,000 kilometers across the Yukon and northwest Canada, long thought to be dormant, is now confirmed as an active seismic hazard. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Scientists from the University of Victoria, the Geological Survey of Canada, and the University of Alberta have uncovered compelling evidence that this fault is dangerously overdue for a major earthquake potentially a magnitude 7.5 or greater. With modern imaging technologies revealing recent geological ruptures and tectonic strain accumulating silently for over 12,000 years, this discovery challenges existing national seismic models. The findings raise urgent questions about infrastructure safety, emergency preparedness, and seismic risk in a region largely unprepared for such a powerful event. Canada's Tintina Fault confirmed active, posing significant earthquake risk in northern regions The Tintina fault is a major lateral strike-slip fault, similar in nature to California's infamous San Andreas Fault. This type of fault moves horizontally as tectonic plates slide past each other. Stretching more than 1,000 kilometers, it has historically shifted over 450 kilometers, shaping the geology of northwestern Canada. Previously, scientists believed the fault had been inactive for tens of millions of years. However, new research using high-resolution satellite, drone, and airplane imaging reveals otherwise. These modern techniques allow researchers to detect subtle yet significant surface changes known as fault scarps — ridges formed by past earthquake ruptures. Key findings from geological data of lidar technology on the Tintina fault Using lidar (light detection and ranging) technology mounted on drones and aircraft, combined with data from the ArcticDEM satellite project, the research team identified a 130-kilometer section of the Tintina fault showing unmistakable signs of seismic ruptures during the Quaternary Period — spanning the last 2.6 million years. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Key findings include: Fault scarps offsetting glacial landforms by up to 1,000 meters. Geological features approximately 132,000 years old displaced by 75 meters. Surface landforms around 12,000 years old that appear undisturbed, indicating the last major rupture happened just before that time. This pattern confirms that the fault has remained geologically active into recent history, overturning assumptions of dormancy. 7.5+ magnitude earthquake threat looms as Tintina fault accumulates long-term strain Dr. Theron Finley, lead author and geologist at the University of Victoria, explains that the Tintina fault has been accumulating tectonic strain for over 12,000 years at a rate between 0.2 and 0.8 millimeters per year. This accumulated energy is expected to be released in a major seismic event, potentially registering a magnitude 7.5 or greater earthquake. Such an earthquake could cause widespread devastation, especially given the proximity of the historic town of Dawson City, located just 20 kilometers from the fault scarps. The town, known for its Gold Rush heritage, lacks the earthquake-resistant infrastructure found in other regions like British Columbia or California. Tintina fault dangers posed The dangers posed by the Tintina fault extend beyond ground shaking. The surrounding terrain is highly susceptible to landslides, many already showing signs of instability: The Moosehide landslide north of Dawson City. The Sunnydale landslide across the Yukon River. A strong earthquake could trigger these slopes to collapse, sending millions of tons of earth into nearby valleys or waterways. This could block rivers, destroy property, disrupt ecosystems, and put communities at serious risk. Tintina fault discovery prompting major update to Canada's National Seismic Hazard Model One of the most alarming aspects of this discovery is that the Tintina fault is not currently included as an active seismic source in Canada's National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM). This model guides building codes, engineering practices, and emergency preparedness across the country. In response to the new findings, Natural Resources Canada officials have confirmed plans to update the NSHM to incorporate the Tintina fault data. These changes are expected to influence: Construction permits and building codes. Zoning regulations in northern communities. Emergency planning and disaster response protocols. National infrastructure projects across the Yukon and adjacent regions. First nations and scientists work together on Tintina fault safety The research took place on the traditional territories of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in and Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nations, who have been engaged in the process. Sharing these findings with local governments and emergency managers ensures that those most affected are informed and can participate in developing resilience strategies. While precise prediction of earthquakes remains impossible, geological evidence indicates that the Tintina fault is approaching the end of its current seismic cycle. According to Dr. Finley: 'This fault has been silent for over 12,000 years. That's well within the recurrence interval for a fault of this size and behavior. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when.' The scientific consensus urges immediate action to update hazard assessments, reinforce infrastructure, and bolster preparedness across Canada's northern frontier. Failure to act could expose communities to an unprecedented disaster in modern Canadian history. Also Read |
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
A Massive Fault Line Was Supposed to Be ‘Dead'. It Sure Seems Like It's Stirring Again.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The Tintina fault is thought to have been inactive for more than 40 million years, but new research suggests that earthquakes occurred in the zone much more recently. Researchers from the University of Victoria identified fault scarps that suggest major slips occurred during the Quaternary period (2.6 million years ago to present day). The team estimated that the fault accumulates.2 to.8 millimeters of strain each year, meaning that a release could cause a 7.5 magnitude earthquake—or on that's even bigger. Earthquakes occur when two blocks of earth slip past one another at a fault. While earthquakes are perhaps the most tangible reminder that the ground we stand on is always shifting, not all movement at fault planes is sudden. Sometimes blocks slowly creep past each other across centuries. Some faults, like the Tintina fault, are believed to be inactive, meaning that they no longer have earthquakes. The Tintina fault stretches about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across the Yukon territory in northwestern Canada, and until recently, scientists believed the zone to have been inactive for over 40 million years. A new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, however, tells a different story. The research team—led by experts from the University of Victoria (UVic)—discovered a 130 kilometer (80 mile) stretch with evidence of recent movement. Now, experts believe devastating earthquakes could be on the way. The team used high-resolution topographic data and LiDAR surveys collected from satellites, airplanes, and drones to identify fault scarps (linear ruptures produced by landscapes) in the area. Researchers found a series of fault scarps passing within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of Dawson City, Canada—evidence that could completely change our understanding of the Tintina fault's movement. 'Over the past couple of decades there have been a few small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina fault, but nothing to suggest it is capable of large ruptures,' Theron Finley, lead author of the study, said in a press release. 'The expanding availability of high-resolution data prompted us to re-examine the fault, looking for evidence of prehistoric earthquakes in the landscape.' Along the fault scarps, the team found 2.6-million-year-old glacial landforms offset by approximately 1000 meters (3280 feet). Researchers also discovered other 132,000-year-old landforms that were only offset by 75 meters (246 feet). Both findings confirm that the fault slipped substantially during earthquakes in the Quaternary period—a geological timeframe spanning from 2.6 million years ago to present day. Interestingly, landforms that emerged 12,000 years ago showed no movement, meaning that there haven't been any large ruptures in the area for over 12 millennia. Using the data collected, researchers estimate that the fault accumulates about.2 to.8 millimeters of strain every year, which could mean that a devastating earthquake is imminent. 'We determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed magnitude 7.5,' Finley said in the release. 'Based on the data, we think that the fault may be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accrued a slip deficit, or build-up of strain, of six metres in the last 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake.' Earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.5 or higher are typically noticeable, but cause little damage. Once an earthquake reaches a magnitude of 6.1, however, it can do damage to poorly constructed buildings. As Finley explained, the Tintina fault may exceed magnitude 7.5, meaning that it would be considered a 'major' earthquake on the magnitude scale, and could cause major damage across larger areas. According to the press release, Canada's National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) doesn't currently recognize the Tintina fault as a discrete seismogenic fault source. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life? Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Say A Major Earthquake Fault Line Is Waking Up
Small recreational vehicle driving the Dempster Highway near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Credit - Robert Postma/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group—Getty Images High up in Canada's Yukon Territory, a seismic gun is being cocked and aimed at the little community of Dawson City—population 1,600. If a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is correct, that town or one of many others in the region could be rocked by a major earthquake pretty much at any moment. The source of the danger is a 1,000 km (620 mi.) formation known as the Tintina fault that cuts northwest across the Yukon and terminates in Alaska. It has been mostly still for the past 12,000 years but appears to be getting ready to lurch to life. 'Over the past couple of decades there have been a few small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina Fault, but nothing to suggest it is capable of large ruptures,' said Theron Finley, a recent PhD graduate at Canada's University of Victoria and the lead author of the study, in a statement. That's not the full story, though, Finley says. What the last few decades suggest and what the geological record now shows are two different things—and according to the paper, Tintina is a lot more menacing than it seems. What caught the interest of Finley and his colleagues is a 130-km (80 mi.) segment of the fault that runs near Dawson City, with surface features suggesting that numerous large earthquakes occurred in relatively recent geological history—during the Quaternary Period, which runs from 2.6 million years ago to the present. To get a better understanding, the researchers used an existing library of high-resolution imagery from airplanes, satellites, and drones, some of them captured by lidar—which uses pulsed laser emissions to produce 3D maps of the surface. This allowed them to study that stretch of the fault in unprecedented detail—and find a number of geological secrets hiding in plain sight. At one point in the Tintina segment, they discovered a fault scarp—or a ridged crack in the surface—where the land broke and shifted by 1,000 m (3,280 ft.). That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago. At another spot they found another scarp, misaligned by a more modest 75 m (250 ft.), that they estimate to have been caused by a smaller but still considerable quake that occurred about 132,000 years ago. No evidence of significant quakes turned up at any time in the past 12,000 years, meaning Tintina has been relatively stable throughout the entirety of the Holocene Epoch, which runs from 11,700 years ago to the present. But for modern day folks living in Dawson and elsewhere, that recent period of quiescence is actually bad news. Just because a fault isn't causing quakes doesn't mean it isn't on the move. Finley and his colleagues estimate that Tintina is moving and accumulating strain on the order of 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm a year. Over the course of 12,000 years, those millimeters add up, and when the strain is suddenly released—which it ultimately must be—the result will not be pretty. "We determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed magnitude 7.5,' said Finley in a statement. 'Based on the data, we think that the fault may be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accrued a slip deficit, or build-up of strain, of six metres [20 ft] in the last 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake.' The estimated 7.5 magnitude of the quake would put it on a scale with some of history's bigger temblors, including China's 1976 Tangshan event which claimed an estimated 240,000 to 650,000 lives; and the 2020 Haiti quake, which killed 300,000. The Yukon Territory is much more sparsely populated than Tangshen or Haiti, meaning fewer casualties. Still, there would quite likely be deaths, along with damage to local highways, mines, and other infrastructure. The area is also prone to landslides which could be triggered by a quake. 'Our results,' the researchers wrote, 'have significant implications for seismic hazard in the Yukon Territory and neighboring Alaska. If 12,000 years have elapsed since the last major earthquake, the fault may be at an advanced stage of strain accumulation.' It is impossible to know exactly when that strain will be released, of course—one of the things that makes seismology such a confounding science. The best the scientists can do is warn locals of the long term risks and leave them to prepare go bags, survival kits, and evacuation plans. The Earth will quake at will; we can only react. Write to Jeffrey Kluger at
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Say A Major Earthquake Fault Line Is Waking Up
Small recreational vehicle driving the Dempster Highway near Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Credit - Robert Postma/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group—Getty Images High up in Canada's Yukon Territory, a seismic gun is being cocked and aimed at the little community of Dawson City—population 1,600. If a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is correct, that town or one of many others in the region could be rocked by a major earthquake pretty much at any moment. The source of the danger is a 1,000 km (620 mi.) formation known as the Tintina fault that cuts northwest across the Yukon and terminates in Alaska. It has been mostly still for the past 12,000 years but appears to be getting ready to lurch to life. 'Over the past couple of decades there have been a few small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina Fault, but nothing to suggest it is capable of large ruptures,' said Theron Finley, a recent PhD graduate at Canada's University of Victoria and the lead author of the study, in a statement. That's not the full story, though, Finley says. What the last few decades suggest and what the geological record now shows are two different things—and according to the paper, Tintina is a lot more menacing than it seems. What caught the interest of Finley and his colleagues is a 130-km (80 mi.) segment of the fault that runs near Dawson City, with surface features suggesting that numerous large earthquakes occurred in relatively recent geological history—during the Quaternary Period, which runs from 2.6 million years ago to the present. To get a better understanding, the researchers used an existing library of high-resolution imagery from airplanes, satellites, and drones, some of them captured by lidar—which uses pulsed laser emissions to produce 3D maps of the surface. This allowed them to study that stretch of the fault in unprecedented detail—and find a number of geological secrets hiding in plain sight. At one point in the Tintina segment, they discovered a fault scarp—or a ridged crack in the surface—where the land broke and shifted by 1,000 m (3,280 ft.). That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago. At another spot they found another scarp, misaligned by a more modest 75 m (250 ft.), that they estimate to have been caused by a smaller but still considerable quake that occurred about 132,000 years ago. No evidence of significant quakes turned up at any time in the past 12,000 years, meaning Tintina has been relatively stable throughout the entirety of the Holocene Epoch, which runs from 11,700 years ago to the present. But for modern day folks living in Dawson and elsewhere, that recent period of quiescence is actually bad news. Just because a fault isn't causing quakes doesn't mean it isn't on the move. Finley and his colleagues estimate that Tintina is moving and accumulating strain on the order of 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm a year. Over the course of 12,000 years, those millimeters add up, and when the strain is suddenly released—which it ultimately must be—the result will not be pretty. "We determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed magnitude 7.5,' said Finley in a statement. 'Based on the data, we think that the fault may be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accrued a slip deficit, or build-up of strain, of six metres [20 ft] in the last 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake.' The estimated 7.5 magnitude of the quake would put it on a scale with some of history's bigger temblors, including China's 1976 Tangshan event which claimed an estimated 240,000 to 650,000 lives; and the 2020 Haiti quake, which killed 300,000. The Yukon Territory is much more sparsely populated than Tangshen or Haiti, meaning fewer casualties. Still, there would quite likely be deaths, along with damage to local highways, mines, and other infrastructure. The area is also prone to landslides which could be triggered by a quake. 'Our results,' the researchers wrote, 'have significant implications for seismic hazard in the Yukon Territory and neighboring Alaska. If 12,000 years have elapsed since the last major earthquake, the fault may be at an advanced stage of strain accumulation.' It is impossible to know exactly when that strain will be released, of course—one of the things that makes seismology such a confounding science. The best the scientists can do is warn locals of the long term risks and leave them to prepare go bags, survival kits, and evacuation plans. The Earth will quake at will; we can only react. Write to Jeffrey Kluger at
Time Magazine
29-07-2025
- Science
- Time Magazine
Scientists Say A Major Earthquake Fault Line Is Waking Up
High up in Canada's Yukon Territory, a seismic gun is being cocked and aimed at the little community of Dawson City—population 1,600. If a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is correct, that town or one of many others in the region could be rocked by a major earthquake pretty much at any moment. The source of the danger is a 1,000 km (620 mi.) formation known as the Tintina fault that cuts northwest across the Yukon and terminates in Alaska. It has been mostly still for the past 12,000 years but appears to be getting ready to lurch to life. 'Over the past couple of decades there have been a few small earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 detected along the Tintina Fault, but nothing to suggest it is capable of large ruptures,' said Theron Finley, a recent PhD graduate at Canada's University of Victoria and the lead author of the study, in a statement. That's not the full story, though, Finley says. What the last few decades suggest and what the geological record now shows are two different things—and according to the paper, Tintina is a lot more menacing than it seems. What caught the interest of Finley and his colleagues is a 130-km (80 mi.) segment of the fault that runs near Dawson City, with surface features suggesting that numerous large earthquakes occurred in relatively recent geological history—during the Quaternary Period, which runs from 2.6 million years ago to the present. To get a better understanding, the researchers used an existing library of high-resolution imagery from airplanes, satellites, and drones, some of them captured by lidar—which uses pulsed laser emissions to produce 3D maps of the surface. This allowed them to study that stretch of the fault in unprecedented detail—and find a number of geological secrets hiding in plain sight. At one point in the Tintina segment, they discovered a fault scarp—or a ridged crack in the surface—where the land broke and shifted by 1,000 m (3,280 ft.). That is a clear fingerprint of an earthquake, one that, according to the rounding and wear and sloping of the scarp, occurred about 2.6 million years ago. At another spot they found another scarp, misaligned by a more modest 75 m (250 ft.), that they estimate to have been caused by a smaller but still considerable quake that occurred about 132,000 years ago. No evidence of significant quakes turned up at any time in the past 12,000 years, meaning Tintina has been relatively stable throughout the entirety of the Holocene Epoch, which runs from 11,700 years ago to the present. But for modern day folks living in Dawson and elsewhere, that recent period of quiescence is actually bad news. Just because a fault isn't causing quakes doesn't mean it isn't on the move. Finley and his colleagues estimate that Tintina is moving and accumulating strain on the order of 0.2 mm to 0.8 mm a year. Over the course of 12,000 years, those millimeters add up, and when the strain is suddenly released—which it ultimately must be—the result will not be pretty. "We determined that future earthquakes on the Tintina fault could exceed magnitude 7.5,' said Finley in a statement. 'Based on the data, we think that the fault may be at a relatively late stage of a seismic cycle, having accrued a slip deficit, or build-up of strain, of six metres [20 ft] in the last 12,000 years. If this were to be released, it would cause a significant earthquake.' The estimated 7.5 magnitude of the quake would put it on a scale with some of history's bigger temblors, including China's 1976 Tangshan event which claimed an estimated 240,000 to 650,000 lives; and the 2020 Haiti quake, which killed 300,000. The Yukon Territory is much more sparsely populated than Tangshen or Haiti, meaning fewer casualties. Still, there would quite likely be deaths, along with damage to local highways, mines, and other infrastructure. The area is also prone to landslides which could be triggered by a quake. 'Our results,' the researchers wrote, 'have significant implications for seismic hazard in the Yukon Territory and neighboring Alaska. If 12,000 years have elapsed since the last major earthquake, the fault may be at an advanced stage of strain accumulation.' It is impossible to know exactly when that strain will be released, of course—one of the things that makes seismology such a confounding science. The best the scientists can do is warn locals of the long term risks and leave them to prepare go bags, survival kits, and evacuation plans. The Earth will quake at will; we can only react.
