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western quebec and southern ontario - Department of Geology

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5.4.5 Timiskaming Cluster (WQ9)The Timiskaming cluster, which partly lies in eastern part <strong>of</strong> the <strong>western</strong> Quebec seismiczone, covers an area from latitude 46° to 47.5° <strong>and</strong> latitude -78 to -79.5° <strong>and</strong> contains fiveevents with focal depth <strong>of</strong> 10 km to 18 km. The epicentre <strong>of</strong> the 1935 M6.2 earthquake islocated in this cluster. The north-<strong>western</strong> part <strong>of</strong> this cluster coincides with a 15-km thickwedge <strong>of</strong> supracrustal rocks (The Huronian Supergroup) that records pre 2.1 Ga rifting<strong>and</strong> subsequent establishment <strong>of</strong> a passive margin along the <strong>southern</strong> edge <strong>of</strong> the Superiorcraton (Frederiksen et al., 2006).Figure 5.17 shows the fault plane solutions for the earthquake events in thiscluster. Most <strong>of</strong> the events have reverse-sense focal mechanisms with NW striking nodalplanes (~125- 325°). The nodal planes in this cluster dip at angles from 26 to 43° in N-Edirection <strong>and</strong> from 10 to 58° in S-W direction (Figure 5.18c). Focal mechanisms withinthis cluster (Figure 5.17d) reveal a fairly coherent pattern <strong>of</strong> northeast-southwest trendingP-axes consistent with the overall regional stress field (Figure 5.22). The nodal planesgenerally indicate thrust or oblique thrust strike-slip faulting, <strong>and</strong> most solutions have atleast one northwest-striking nodal plane. The characteristics <strong>of</strong> the WQ9 cluster differsfrom the characteristics <strong>of</strong> the other clusters (Mont Laurier, Adirondack). For example,this cluster is characterized by a lower Gutenberg-Richter b value (0.56) than the otherclusters (0.83) (Ma <strong>and</strong> Atkinson, 2006).90

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