Lineaments from airborne SAR images and the 1988 Saguenay earthquake, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

Airborne SAR images provided essential clues to the tectonic setting of (1) the MbLg 6.5 Saguenay earthquake of 25 November 1988, (2) the Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic source zone, and (3) some of the low *eve* seismic activity in the Eastern seismic background zone of Canada. The event occurred in the southeastern part of the Canadian Shield in an area where the boundary between the Saguenay graben and the Jacques Cartier horst is not well defined. These two tectonic blocks are both associated with the Iapetan St-Lawrence rift. These blocks exhibit several important structural breaks and distinct domains defined by the lineament orientations, densities, and habits. Outcrop observations confirm that several lineament sets correspond to Precambrian ductile shear zones reactivated as brittle faults during the Phanerozoic. In addition, the northeast and southwest limits of recent seismic activity in the Charlevoix-Kamouraska zone correspond to major elements of the fracture pattern identified on the SAR images. These fractures appear to be related to the interaction of the Charlevoix astrobleme with the tectonic features of the area. 20 refs.