High-Resolution Lidar Topography of the Puget Lowland, Washington

More than 10,000 km 2 of high-resolution, public-domain topography acquired by the Puget Sound Lidar Consortium is revolutionizing investigations of active faulting, continental glaciation, landslides, and surficial processes in the seismically active Puget Lowland. The Lowland—the population and economic center of the Pacific Northwest—presents special problems for hazards investigations, with its young glacial topography, dense forest cover, and urbanization. Lidar mapping during leaf-off conditions has led to a detailed digital model of the landscape beneath the forest canopy. The surface thus revealed contains a rich and diverse record of previously unknown surface-rupturing faults, deep-seated landslides, uplifted Holocene and Pleistocene beaches, and subglacial and periglacial features. More than half a dozen suspected postglacial fault scarps have been identified to date. Five scarps that have been trenched show evidence of large, Holocene, surfacerupturing earthquakes.

[1]  R. Blakely,et al.  Location, structure, and seismicity of the Seattle fault zone, Washington: Evidence from aeromagnetic anomalies, geologic mapping, and seismic-reflection data , 2002 .

[2]  Robert J. Carson,et al.  Late Quaternary faults and their relationship to tectonism in the Olympic Peninsula, Washington , 1979 .

[3]  Robert N. Swift,et al.  Accuracy of airborne laser altimetry over the Greenland ice sheet , 1995 .

[4]  Herb Dragert,et al.  GPS deformation in a region of high crustal seismicity: N. Cascadia forearc , 2002 .

[5]  R. Thorson.  Earthquake recurrence and glacial loading in western Washington , 1996 .

[6]  R. Thorson.  Ice-Sheet Glaciation of the Puget Lowland, Washington, during the Vashon Stade (Late Pleistocene) , 1980, Quaternary Research.

[7]  R. Haugerud.  Lidar evidence for Holocene surface rupture on the Little River Fault near Port Angeles, Washington , 2002 .

[8]  R. Bucknam,et al.  Abrupt Uplift Within the Past 1700 Years at Southern Puget Sound, Washington , 1992, Science.

[9]  Kenji Satake,et al.  Time and size of a giant earthquake in Cascadia inferred from Japanese tsunami records of January 1700 , 1996, Nature.

[10]  C. Goldfinger,et al.  Rotation and plate locking at the Southern Cascadia Subduction Zone , 2000 .

[11]  S. C. Porter,et al.  Radiocarbon Age Constraints on Rates of Advance and Retreat of the Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Last Glaciation , 1998, Quaternary Research.

[12]  Kenneth W. Hudnut,et al.  High-Resolution Topography along Surface Rupture of the 16 October 1999 Hector Mine, California, Earthquake (Mw 7.1) from Airborne Laser Swath Mapping , 2002 .

[13]  Derek B. Booth,et al.  Glaciofluvial infilling and scour of the Puget Lowland , 1994 .

[14]  C. Potter,et al.  Origin and evolution of the Seattle fault and Seattle basin, Washington , 1994 .

[15]  Herb Dragert,et al.  GPS‐determination of along‐strike variation in Cascadia margin kinematics: Implications for relative plate motion, subduction zone coupling, and permanent deformation , 2001 .

[16]  W. Stanley,et al.  Active tectonics of the Seattle fault and central Puget Sound , 1999 .

[17]  W. Krabill,et al.  Airborne laser study quantifies El Ni˜o‐induced Coastal Change , 1999 .

[18]  R. Thorson.  Glacio-isostatic response of the Puget Sound area , 1989 .

[19]  J. Blair,et al.  The Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor: a medium-altitude, digitisation-only, airborne laser altimeter for mapping vegetation and topography , 1999 .

[20]  D. Harding,et al.  SOME ALGORITHMS FOR VIRTUAL DEFORESTATION (VDF) OF LIDAR TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY DATA , 2001 .

[21]  B. Hallet,et al.  Channel networks carved by subglacial water: Observations and reconstruction in the eastern Puget Lowland of Washington , 1993 .

[22]  R. Blakely,et al.  Fore-arc migration in Cascadia and its neotectonic significance , 1998 .

[23]  B. Malfait,et al.  Geophysical investigation of the southern Puget Sound area, Washington , 1965 .

[24]  William Eugene Carter,et al.  Airborne laser swath mapping shines new light on Earth's topography , 2001 .

[25]  D. Harding,et al.  Fault Scarp Detection Beneath Dense Vegetation Cover: Airborne Lidar Mapping of the Seattle Fault Zone, Bainbridge Island, Washington State , 2000 .