Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Geologists will get an underground look at a suspected fault this week as part of a state led reconnaissance of the route of a gas pipeline to Canada. State Neo-tectonic Geologist Rich Kaoehler says the excavation project near Cathedral Rapids on the Tanana River west of Tok, allows investigators to peer back in geologic time.
Kaoehler says the fault site is one of many on the north side of the Alaska Range the state is evaluating along the potential gas line route between Delta Junction and the border. He says the process starts with an aerial recon.
Kaoehler says the area has a lot of low level seismic activity and that trenching done by the state on other fault sites to the east and west, show evidence of earthquakes as long as 10,000 years ago. He says the data derived from fault excavations will be used by gas line engineers.
Excavation is scheduled to begin tomorrow.
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