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H.M. Kelsey

Publications and source records attributed to H.M. Kelsey.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2017

Evidence for Regional Stream Aggradation in the Central Oregon Coast Range during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

Low, nearly continuous terraces of similar age are present along streams in drainage basins that range in size from Drift Creek (190 km2) to the Umpqua River (11,800 km2) in the Oregon Coast Range. Radiocarbon ages from near the bose of fluvial sediments underlying these terraces are clustered at about 9000-11,000 14C yr B.P. Beveled bedrock surfaces (straths) that underlie the fluvial sediments are 1-8 m above summer stream levels and are present along most of the nontidal reaches of the rivers that we studied. Where exposed, the bedrock straths are overlain by 2-11 m of fluvial sediment that consists of a bottom-stratum (channel) facies of sandy pebble-cobble gravel and a top-stratum (overbank) facies of sandy silt or silt. Eight radiocarbon ages from the fluvial sediments allow correlation of the lowest continuous terrace over a wide area and thus indicate that a regional aggradation episode occurred in Coast Range drainage basins during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. The cause of such widespread aggradation is unknown but may be related to climate-induced changes in the frequency of evacuation of colluvium from hollows, which are common in all drainage basins in the region.

Quaternary Research↗
USGS2017

Great earthquakes of variable magnitude at the Cascadia subduction zone

Comparison of histories of great earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis at eight coastal sites suggests plate-boundary ruptures of varying length, implying great earthquakes of variable magnitude at the Cascadia subduction zone. Inference of rupture length relies on degree of overlap on radiocarbon age ranges for earthquakes and tsunamis, and relative amounts of coseismic subsidence and heights of tsunamis. Written records of a tsunami in Japan provide the most conclusive evidence for rupture of much of the plate boundary during the earthquake of 26 January 1700. Cascadia stratigraphic evidence dating from about 1600??cal yr B.P., similar to that for the 1700 earthquake, implies a similarly long rupture with substantial subsidence and a high tsunami. Correlations are consistent with other long ruptures about 1350??cal yr B.P., 2500??cal yr B.P., 3400??cal yr B.P., 3800??cal yr B.P., 4400??cal yr B.P., and 4900??cal yr B.P. A rupture about 700-1100??cal yr B.P. was limited to the northern and central parts of the subduction zone, and a northern rupture about 2900??cal yr B.P. may have been similarly limited. Times of probable short ruptures in southern Cascadia include about 1100??cal yr B.P., 1700??cal yr B.P., 3200??cal yr B.P., 4200??cal yr B.P., 4600??cal yr B.P., and 4700??cal yr B.P. Rupture patterns suggest that the plate boundary in northern Cascadia usually breaks in long ruptures during the greatest earthquakes. Ruptures in southernmost Cascadia vary in length and recurrence intervals more than ruptures in northern Cascadia.

Quaternary Research↗
USGS2005

Tsunami history of an Oregon coastal lake reveals a 4600 yr record of great earthquakes on the Cascadia subduction zone

Bradley Lake, on the southern Oregon coastal plain, records local tsunamis and seismic shaking on the Cascadia subduction zone over the last 7000 yr. Thirteen marine incursions delivered landward-thinning sheets of sand to the lake from nearshore, beach, and dune environments to the west. Following each incursion, a slug of marine water near the bottom of the freshwater lake instigated a few-year-to-several-decade period of a brackish (??? 4??? salinity) lake. Four additional disturbances without marine incursions destabilized sideslopes and bottom sediment, producing a suspension deposit that blanketed the lake bottom. Considering the magnitude and duration of the disturbances necessary to produce Bradley Lake's marine incursions, a local tsunami generated by a great earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone is the only accountable mechanism. Extreme ocean levels must have been at least 5-8 m above sea level, and the cumulative duration of each marine incursion must have been at least 10 min. Disturbances without marine incursions require seismic shaking as well. Over the 4600 yr period when Bradley Lake was an optimum tsunami recorder, tsunamis from Cascadia plate-boundary earthquakes came in clusters. Between 4600 and 2800 cal yr B.P., tsunamis occurred at the average frequency of ??? 3-4 every 1000 yr. Then, starting ???2800 cal yr B.P., there was a 930-1260 yr interval with no tsunamis. That gap was followed by a ???1000 yr period with 4 tsunamis. In the last millennium, a 670-750 yr gap preceded the A.D. 1700 earthquake and tsunami. The A.D. 1700 earthquake may be the first of a new cluster of plate-boundary earthquakes and accompanying tsunamis. Local tsunamis entered Bradley Lake an average of every 390 yr, whereas the portion of the Cascadia plate boundary that underlies Bradley Lake ruptured in a great earthquake less frequently, about once every 500 yr. Therefore, the entire length of the subduction zone does not rupture in every earthquake, and Bradley Lake has recorded earthquakes caused by rupture along the entire length of the Cascadia plate boundary as well as earthquakes caused by rupture of shorter segments of the boundary. The tsunami record from Bradley Lake indicates that at times, most recently ???1700 yr B.P., overlapping or adjoining segments of the Cascadia plate boundary ruptured within decades of each other. ?? 2005 Geological Society of America.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS2004

Seventeenth-century uplift in eastern Hokkaido, Japan

Shores of eastern Hokkaido rose by perhaps 1 m a few centuries ago. The uplifted area extended at least 50 km along the southern Kuril Trench. It included the estuaries Akkeshi-ko and Hichirippu, on the Pacific coast, and Fu??ren-ko and Onneto??, which open to the Okhotsk Sea. At each estuary, intertidal and subtidal flats rose with respect to tide level; wetland plants colonized the emerging land; and peaty wetland deposits thereby covered mud and sand of the former flats. Previous work at Akkeshi-ko and Onneto?? showed that such emergence occurred at least three times in the past 3000 years. Volcanic-ash layers date the youngest emergence to the seventeenth century AD. New evidence from Akkeshi-ko, Hichirippu and Fu??ren-ko clarifies the age and amount of this youngest emergence. Much of it probably dates from the century's middle decades. Some of the newly emerged land remained above high tides into the middle of the eighteenth century or later. The emergence in the last half of the seventeenth century probably exceeded 0.5 m (inferred from stratigraphy and diatom palaeoecology) without far exceeding 1 m (estimated by comparing seventeenth- and eighteenth-century descriptions of Akkeshi-ko). The stratigraphy and palaeoecology of the emergence are better explained by tectonic uplift than by bay-mouth blockage, tidal-flat accretion or sea-level fall. Eastern Hokkaido needs occasional uplift, moreover, to help reconcile its raised marine terraces with its chronic twentieth-century subsidence. Because it took place above forearc mantle, eastern Hokkaido's seventeenth-century uplift probably lacks analogy with coseismic uplift that occurs above typical plate-boundary ruptures at subduction zones.

Holocene↗
USGS2004

Transient uplift after a 17th-century earthquake along the kuril subduction zone

In eastern Hokkaido, 60 to 80 kilometers above a subducting oceanic plate, tidal mudflats changed into freshwater forests during the first decades after a 17th-century tsunami. The mudflats gradually rose by a meter, as judged from fossil diatom assemblages. Both the tsunami and the ensuing uplift exceeded any in the region's 200 years of written history, and both resulted from a shallow plate-boundary earthquake of unusually large size along the Kuril subduction zone. This earthquake probably induced more creep farther down the plate boundary than did any of the region's historical events.

Science↗
USGS2004

Holocene fault scarps near Tacoma, Washington, USA

Airborne laser mapping confirms that Holocene active faults traverse the Puget Sound metropolitan area, northwestern continental United States. The mapping, which detects forest-floor relief of as little as 15 cm, reveals scarps along geophysical lineaments that separate areas of Holocene uplift and subsidence. Along one such line of scarps, we found that a fault warped the ground surface between A.D. 770 and 1160. This reverse fault, which projects through Tacoma, Washington, bounds the southern and western sides of the Seattle uplift. The northern flank of the Seattle uplift is bounded by a reverse fault beneath Seattle that broke in A.D. 900-930. Observations of tectonic scarps along the Tacoma fault demonstrate that active faulting with associated surface rupture and ground motions pose a significant hazard in the Puget Sound region.

Geology↗
USGS2004

Land-level changes from a late Holocene earthquake in the northern Puget lowland, Washington

An earthquake, probably generated on the southern Whidbey Island fault zone, caused 1-2 m of ground-surface uplift on central Whidbey Island ???2800-3200 yr ago. The cause of the uplift is a fold that grew coseismically above a blind fault that was the earthquake source. Both the fault and the fold at the fault's tip are imaged on multichannel seismic refection profiles in Puget Sound immediately east of the central Whidbey Island site. Uplift is documented through contrasting histories of relative sea level at two coastal marshes on either side of the fault. Late Holocene shallow-crustal earthquakes of Mw = 6.5-7 pose substantial seismic hazard to the northern Puget Lowland. ?? 2004 Geological Society of America.

Geology↗
USGS2004

Evidence for Late Holocene earthquakes on the Utsalady Point fault, Northern Puget Lowland, Washington

Trenches across the Utsalady Point fault in the northern Puget Lowland of Washington reveal evidence of at least one and probably two late Holocene earthquakes. The "Teeka" and "Duffers" trenches were located along a 1.4-km-long, 1-to 4-m-high, northwest-trending, southwest-facing, topographic scarp recognized from Airborne Laser Swath Mapping. Glaciomarine drift exposed in the trenches reveals evidence of about 95 to 150 cm of vertical and 200 to 220 cm of left-lateral slip in the Teeka trench. Radiocarbon ages from a buried soil A horizon and overlying slope colluvium along with the historical record of earthquakes suggest that this faulting occurred 100 to 400 calendar years B.P. (A.D. 1550 to 1850). In the Duffers trench, 370 to 450 cm of vertical separation is accommodated by faulting (???210 cm) and folding (???160 to 240 cm), with probable but undetermined amounts of lateral slip. Stratigraphic relations and radiocarbon ages from buried soil, colluvium, and fissure fill in the hanging wall suggest the deformation at Duffers is most likely from two earthquakes that occurred between 100 to 500 and 1100 to 2200 calendar years B.P., but deformation during a single earthquake is also possible. For the two-earthquake hypothesis, deformation at Teeka trench in the first event involved folding but not faulting. Regional relations suggest that the earthquake(s) were M ??? ???6.7 and that offshore rupture may have produced tsunamis. Based on this investigation and related recent studies, the maximum recurrence interval for large ground-rupturing crustal-fault earthquakes in the Puget Lowland is about 400 to 600 years or less.

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America↗
USGS2003

Late Holocene earthquakes on the Toe Jam Hill fault, Seattle fault zone, Bainbridge Island, Washington

Five trenches across a Holocene fault scarp yield the first radiocarbon-measured earthquake recurrence intervals for a crustal fault in western Washington. The scarp, the first to be revealed by laser imagery, marks the Toe Jam Hill fault, a north-dipping backthrust to the Seattle fault. Folded and faulted strata, liquefaction features, and forest soil A horizons buried by hanging-wall-collapse colluvium record three, or possibly four, earthquakes between 2500 and 1000 yr ago. The most recent earthquake is probably the 1050-1020 cal. (calibrated) yr B.P. (A.D. 900-930) earthquake that raised marine terraces and triggered a tsunami in Puget Sound. Vertical deformation estimated from stratigraphic and surface offsets at trench sites suggests late Holocene earthquake magnitudes near M7, corresponding to surface ruptures >36 km long. Deformation features recording poorly understood latest Pleistocene earthquakes suggest that they were smaller than late Holocene earthquakes. Postglacial earthquake recurrence intervals based on 97 radiocarbon ages, most on detrital charcoal, range from ???12,000 yr to as little as a century or less; corresponding fault-slip rates are 0.2 mm/yr for the past 16,000 yr and 2 mm/yr for the past 2500 yr. Because the Toe Jam Hill fault is a backthrust to the Seattle fault, it may not have ruptured during every earthquake on the Seattle fault. But the earthquake history of the Toe Jam Hill fault is at least a partial proxy for the history of the rest of the Seattle fault zone.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS2001

Optical dating of tsunami-laid sand from an Oregon coastal lake

Optical ages for five samples of tsunami-laid sand from an Oregon coastal lake were determined using an infrared optical-dating method on K-feldspar separates and, as a test of accuracy, compared to ages determined by AMS 14C dating of detrital plant fragments found in the same beds. Two optical ages were about 20% younger than calibrated 14C ages of about 3.1 and 4.3 ka. Correction of the optical ages using measured anomalous fading rates brings them into agreement with the 14C ages. The approach used holds significant promise for improving the accuracy of infrared optical-dating methods. Luminescence data for the other three samples result in optical age limits much greater than the 14C ages. These data provide a textbook demonstration of the correlation between scatter in the luminescence intensity of individual sample aliquots and their normalization values that is expected when the samples contain sand grains not adequately exposed to daylight just prior to or during deposition and burial. Thus, the data for these three samples suggest that the tsunamis eroded young and old sand deposits before dropping the sand in the lake. ?? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quaternary Science Reviews↗
USGS1998

Response of a small Oregon estuary to coseismic subsidence and postseismic uplift in the past 300 years

The Sixes River estuary, south coastal Oregon, sits above the locked portion of the Cascadia subduction zone, which intermittently releases in subduction-zone earthquakes. One such Cascadia earthquake ∼300 years ago caused subsidence and a tsunami at the Sixes estuary. The subsidence raised the river's base level, resulting in an ∼3 km upstream shift of the head of tide of the estuary. At the upper end of the expanded estuary, more than 4 m of overbank sediment was deposited in the first decades or century after subsidence. Subsequent incision through the overbank deposits accompanied the gradual emergence of the estuary, and attendant downstream shift of the head of tide, as relative sea level fell in response to interseismic uplift.

Geology↗
USGS1982

Geologic map of the Redwood Creek drainage basin, Humboldt County, California

A 1:62,500-scale geologic map with 14 rock stratigraphic units and an accompanying explanatory text are used to describe the geology of the Redwood Creek drainage basin of northwestern California. A large part of Redwood National Park is located in the downstream part of this actively eroding drainage basin. The bedrock consists primarily of Mesozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The structurally complex Franciscan assemblage of rocks underlies most of the basin, but rocks of the Klammath Mountain tectonic province occurs in a small eastern part of the basin. Most major boundaries between Mesozoic rock units are north-northwest trending faults parallel to the regional structural trend. Extensive areas of surficial coastal plain sediments, landslide deposits, stream terrace deposits and modern alluvium are also present; these areas help identify loci of vigorous recent erosion. (USGS)

California↗