After 12,000 years of calm, a seismic outburst is brewing in northwestern Canada as an ancient geologic fault grows restless. The Tintina fault, which stretches across the Yukon Territory and terminates in the center of Alaska, has become so strained that it could unleash powerful earthquakes in the future.
A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters explains how this ominous threat has snowballed over time, as the Tintina fault continues to show signs of buckling under pressure. Because of the sustained accumulation of strain, the fault may eventually reach a breaking point, producing future earthquakes of 7.5 magnitude or higher that could endanger Yukon cities and infrastructure.
Throughout history, the Tintina fault has been mostly dormant. The same can’t be said for a neighboring fault, the Denali fault, which was the site of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook Alaska in 2002 — it turned out to be the ...
