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Seminar: Dr. Kevin Stewart and Dr. Jonathan Lees, UNC-CH
February 11, 2022 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
UNC-CH’s Department of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences is proud to host a guest seminar by Dr. Kevin Stewart and Dr. Jonatha Lees. This event is scheduled for Friday, February 11th, at 12:30 pm. This seminar is ONLINE and will be broadcasted live via Zoom (Meeting ID: 946 8266 2098, Password: EMES22).
Title: 2020 Sparta Mw 5.1 earthquake
Abstract: At 8:07am on August 9, 2020, a Mw 5.1 earthquake located ~3 km south of Sparta, North
Carolina, USA, shook much of the eastern United States, producing the first documented surface rupture due to faulting east of the New Madrid seismic zone. The fault ruptured along a 2-km-long segment of the newly recognized Little River fault showing predominantly reverse displacement, with folding and flexure generating a scarp averaging 8–10-cm-high with a maximum observed height of ~25 cm. Widespread deformation south of the main surface rupture includes cm-dm–long and mm-cm– wide fissures. Three trenches excavated across the surface rupture reveal that this earthquake propagated to the surface along a preexisting structure in the shallow bedrock, which had not been previously identified as an active fault. Surface ruptures by faulting are rarely reported for M <6 earthquakes, and hence the Sparta earthquake p
rovides an opportunity to improve seismic hazard knowledge associated with these moderate events. Furthermore, this earthquake occurred in a low strain rate intraplate setting, where earthquake surface deformation, regardless of magnitude, is rare. The Sparta earthquake provides an opportunity to understand the nature of intraplate seismicity.
