The 25 April 1992 magnitude 7.1 Cape Mendocino thrust earthquake demonstrated that the North America-Gorda plate boundary is seismogenic and illustrated hazards that could result from much larger earthquakes forecast for the Cascadia region. The shock occurred just north of the Mendocino Triple Junction and caused strong ground motion and moderate damage in the immediate area. Rupture initiated onshore at a depth of 10.5 kilometers and propagated up-dip and seaward. Slip on steep faults in the Gorda plate generated two magnitude 6.6 aftershocks on 26 April. The main shock did not produce surface rupture on land but caused coastal uplift and a tsunami. The emerging picture of seismicity and faulting at the triple junction suggests that the region is likely to continue experiencing significant seismicity.
A 140‐km‐long refraction/wide‐angle reflection profile recently recorded by Stanford University and the U. S. Geological Survey imaged the subducting Gorda slab beneath northern California. The profile, which is subparallel to the coast from Cape Mendocino northward, indicates that the North American plate is 13‐ to 14‐km‐thick along the coast north of Cape Mendocino. The crust is characterized by relatively uniform, low velocities of ≤6 km/s interpreted as Franciscan rocks. Two strong reflections define the upper and lower boundaries of the subducting Gorda crust. Our data indicate that the subducting Gorda crust thickens northward from Cape Mendocino from 7‐km‐thick just north of Cape Mendocino to 10‐km‐thick 120 km to the north. This change in thickness is coincident with a change in velocity from 6.7 km/s south to 6.2 km/s north. Mantle velocities of 7.7 km/s are observed for offsets greater than c. 80 km. We interpret our model to indicate that the Gorda slab is not imbricated on a crustal scale beneath our profile, that sediments and/or a tectonically thickened oceanic layer 2 are present to the north but not in the vicinity of Cape Mendocino, and that proximity to the Mendocino triple junction affects the way sediments are subducted.
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