Tsunamigenic Splay Faults Imply a Long-Term Asperity in Southern Prince William Sound, Alaska

Coseismic slip partitioning and uplift over multiple earthquake cycles is critical to understanding upper-plate fault development. Bathymetric and seismic reflection data from the 1964 Mw9.2 Great Alaska earthquake rupture area reveal sea floor scarps along the tsunamigenic Patton Bay/Cape Cleare/Middleton Island fault system. The faults splay from a megathrust where duplexing and underplating produced rapid exhumation. Trenchward of the duplex region, the faults produce a complex deformation pattern from oblique, south-directed shortening at the Yakutat-Pacific plate boundary. Spatial and temporal fault patterns suggest that Holocene megathrust earthquakes had similar relative motions and thus similar tsunami sources as in 1964. Tsunamis during future earthquakes will likely produce similar run-up patterns and travel times. Splay fault surface expressions thus relate to plate boundary conditions, indicating millennial-scale persistence of this asperity. We suggest structure of the subducted slab directly influences splay fault and tsunami generation landward of the frontal subduction zone prism.