Description: Seismic-reflection data along the Haida Gwaii margin collected from 1967 to 2013 were used to identify gas hydrate–related bottom-simulating reflectors (BSRs). The BSRs occur along the Queen Charlotte Terrace only, within more strongly folded and tectonically deformed sedimentary ridges. The BSRs are absent within well-bedded and sediment-filled minibasins. The BSR is modeled as the base of the phase boundary of the methane hydrate (structure I) stability zone and is used to estimate geothermal gradients. The P-wave velocity structure required to convert observed depths of the BSR in two-way time to meters below seafloor was constrained from ocean-bottom seismometers. The BSR-derived gradients are lower than data from heat-probe deployments in the region, as well as predicted values from previous modeling of the large-scale tectonic thermal regime. Lower values of the BSR-derived thermal gradients may be due to topographic effects across the ridges where BSRs were observed. The previously identified landward decrease in thermal gradients across the terrace was also identified to a lesser extent from the BSRs, in accordance with the effects of oblique convergence of the Pacific plate with the North American plate. Geothermal gradients decreased from south to north by a factor of two, which is likely an effect of plate cooling due to an increase in age of the underlying plate (ca. 8 Ma off southern Haida Gwaii to ca. 12 Ma at Dixon Entrance) as well as the fact that sediments triple in thickness over the same distance. This may be due to downward flexure of the underlying crust during transpression and/or a high flux of sediments through Dixon Entrance.

Description: A well-recorded Mw 7.8 megathrust earthquake occurred on 27 October 2012 under the Queen Charlotte terrace off the west coast of Haida Gwaii, western Canada. In this study, we supplement limited earlier seismic refraction work on the offshore velocity structure off Haida Gwaii with data from ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) operating between 6 December 2012 and 5 January 2013. The OBS recorded a portion of the aftershock sequence, and an active-source seismic survey was conducted in January 2013 to acquire seismic refraction data in the region of the Haida Gwaii earthquake across the Queen Charlotte terrace. P-wave velocity analyses using first-arrival tomography showed relatively shallow (2.0–3.0 km below seafloor) high-velocity material with values up to 4.0 km/s beneath the terrace. At the one OBS station seaward of the deformation front on the abyssal plain, refraction velocities of ~4.5 km/s indicated the top of the oceanic plate at ~1–2 km below the seafloor. At sev­eral OBS stations, converted shear-wave velocities were determined within the sediment cover using reflected arrivals. The S-wave velocities ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 km/s, and the corresponding P/S velocity ratio was between 3.0 and 4.2. The new refraction data confirm earlier interpretations of high-velocity material in the shallow terrace that may indicate fractured oceanic crustal material lies significantly above the location where a sub­ducted slab is thought to occur under the terrace. Transpressive deformation of the Pacific plate may explain these observations.