THE EASTERN ALEUTIAN CONTINENTAL MARGIN
Roland von Huene Michael Fisher migrated using the Digicom DISCOTM processing system at the USGS Denver facility (von Huene
U.S. Geological Survey Menlo Park, California
John Miller
U.S. Geological Survey Denver, Colorado
REGIONAL TECTONIC SETTING
The seismic section across the Eastern Aleutian margin off southern Kodiak Island illustrates
structure from the axis of the eastern Aleutian Trench to the edge of the Kodiak shelf. The seafloor
morphology includes a flat trench axial area, a lower slope with two main steps, and a sharp
topographic break marking the base of the steepened upper slope. The seismic section crosses a
deep canyon in the upper slope, connected to one of the relict glacial troughs that cross the Kodiak
Shelf (Hampton, 1983).
The Kodiak margin is composed of the insular outcrops containing metamorphosed accretion
complex of Upper Cretaceous to Eocene age, the Kodiak shelf with the Neogene Albatross basin
behind a high at the edge of the shelf named Albatross bank, and the landward slope of the trench.
Albatross basin is filled with upper Miocene to Recent sediment 5 km deep (Fisher and von Huene,
1980) and is floored by a subareal erosion surface across landward-tilted Eocene and Oligocene (?)
strata. These strata were sampled northeast of the seismic record section at Middleton Island (Rau et
al., 1977; Keller et al., 1984), on the seaward flank of Albatross basin (Herrera, 1978), and
southwest of it near Sanak Island (Bruns et al., in press). Subsidence of the Miocene regional
erosion surface began about 6 Ma and subsequently, about 2 Ma, Albatross bank was uplifted at
least 3 km (Fisher and von Huene, 1980; von Huene et al., in press). Thus, the steep upper slope that
descends from Albatross bank must have been modified or even formed during the past 2 m.y. The
lower-slope accretionary complex probably formed during the Pliocene to Quaternary period of
accelerated volcanism during which convergence was normal to the trench axis, but it has not been
sampled and its age can only be inferred.
GEOPHYSICAL DATA
The section was recorded onboard the USGS research vessel S.P. Lee in 1977 with a GUS-4300
digital recording instrument. The seismic source was a tuned air-gun array with a 21.7-1 (1326-in.3)
capacity and a streamer of 24 groups, 2400 m long. Shot points were located by satellite navigation.
After production-level processing and display as a stacked section, the seismic data were post-stack
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Huene et al., in press). Since accreted material is buttressed against the upper-slope framework, its
et al., 1983). Subsequently, pre-stack migration improved the imaging of tectonic features (see p. 4,
this volume). Particularly critical was the sharp imaging of conjugate faults at the front of the
margin because they can be used to estimate the strength of the deforming sediment and the friction
along bounding faults (Davis et al., 1983).
GEOLOGIC RELATIONSHIPS FROM THE SEISMIC SECTIONS
A controlling tectonic feature on the lower slope is the decollement that partitions an upper 1.5-
to 2-km-thick accreting section from a lower 1.5-km-thick subducting section. This decollement
forms at a reflecting horizon of high amplitude and is marked by terminated beds in the overthrust
sediment sequence. The subducting sequence maintains stratal continuity and nearly constant
thickness for at least 15 km without significant deformation. An area of apparent deformation
beneath the first major deformation zone is probably an artifact of the complex ray paths through
the overlying fold and faults. Two major zones of deformation are noted in the accreted section
above the decollement. The first forms the deformation front at the base of the slope and consists of
folded sediment bound by a landward-dipping thrust and the conjugate seaward-dipping thrust fault.
Compression of sediment below the trench axis is indicated by a blind thrust 7.5 km seaward of the
first zone of deformation. Behind the first zone of deformation, an 8.5-km-long sequence of strata is
gently folded, broken by small reverse faults and buried by sediment ponded behind the frontal fold.
The second zone of major deformation is not as clearly imaged as the first because it is more
deformed and is probably covered by coarse glacial sediment at the mouth of the canyon that is seen
on the upper slope. The sediment ponded behind the second deformation front has low reflectivity.
At the contact between the upper and lower slope, some ponded sediment may be slightly
deformed at the sea floor just in front of the break in the slope. The break is not only a sea-floor and
upper-plate feature but also appears to correspond with a sudden steepening of the dip of the
subduction zone as defined by seismic refraction measurements (Shor and von Huene, 1972). The
structural configuration of the upper and lower slope boundary is not clear.
The upper slope is characterized by landward-dipping strata and faults subparallel to bedding.
The strata crop out or subcrop near the sea floor, perhaps due to canyon erosion. On steeper slopes
that dip up to 15¯, sediment will probably have short residence time and not accumulate. The
seismic image of strata is not clear because of the steep sea floor and lack of two-dimensional
topography; however, even low-amplitude reflections can be followed to the water-bottom multiple.
TECTONIC HISTORY
The upper-slope framework is thought to consist of lower Miocene and Eocene rock that was
uplifted along with the Albatross Bank in the Pliocene time (Fisher and von Huene, 1980; von
20
age may not predate the Pliocene uplift of the framework. Despite the thick, accreted sediment, a
nearly equivalent thickness of sediment is being carried to deeper parts of the subduction zone
landward of the lower slope. Perhaps some of the uplift from the Albatross Bank and landward
results from underplating of the subducted sediment (von Huene et al., in press). It is interesting to
note that horizontal compression at the front of the margin is insufficient to disrupt the subducting
sediment yet sufficient to affect the trench fill some 7.5 km in front of the base of slope. Such a
condition could only exist if friction along the decollement were reduced to low levels, presumably
by overpressured pore fluids.
REFERENCES CITED
BRUNS, T.R., R. VON HUENE, and R.C. CULOTTA, in press, Geology and petroleum potential of
the Shumagin Margin, Alaska, in D.W. Scholl, A. Grantz, and J. G. Vedder, eds., Geology and
resource potential of the continental margin of western North America and adjacent ocean
basins—Beaufort Sea to Baja, California: AAPG Memoir 43.
DAVIS, D., J. SUPPE, and F.A. DAHLEN, 1983, Mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and
accretionary wedges: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 88, p. 1153-1172.
FISHER, M.A., and R. VON HUENE, 1980, Structure of upper Cenozoic strata beneath Kodiak
Shelf, Alaska: AAPG Bulletin, v. 64, no. 7, p. 1014-1033.
HAMPTON, M.A., 1983, Geology of the Kodiak Shelf, Alaska: environmental considerations for
resource development: Continental Shelf Research, v. 1, no. 3, p. 253-281.
HERRERA, R.C., 1978, Developments in Alaska in 1977: AAPG Bulletin, v. 62, p. 1311-1321.
KELLER, G., R. VON HUENE, K. McDOUGALL, and T.R. BRUNS, 1984, Paleoclimatic
evidence for Cenozoic migration of Alaskan terranes: Tectonics, v. 3, no. 4, p. 473-495.
RAU, W.W., G. PLAFKER, and G.R. WINKLER, 1977, Preliminary foraminiferal biostratigraphy
and correlation of selected stratigraphic sections and wells in the Gulf of Alaska Tertiary
province: USGS Open File Report 77-747, 54 p.
SHOR, G.G., JR., and R. VON HUENE, 1972, Marine seismic refraction studies near Kodiak,
Alaska: Geophysics, v. 37, p. 697-700.
VON HUENE, R., M.A. FISHER, and T.R. BRUNS, in press, Geology and evolution of the Kodiak
Margin Gulf of Alaska, in D.W. Scholl, A. Grantz, and J.G. Vedder, eds., Geology and resource
potential of the continental margin of western North America and adjacent ocean basins—
Beaufort Sea to Baja, California: AAPG Memoir 43.
VON HUENE, R., J. MILLER, M. FISHER, and G. SMITH, 1983, An eastern Aleutian Trench
seismic record: in A.W. Bally, ed., Seismic expression of structural styles—a picture and work
atlas, AAPG Studies in Geology #15, Tulsa,American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 3 vols.
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