The Suckling Hills Fault, Kayak Island Zone, and accretion of the Yakutat microplate, Alaska

[1] The Suckling Hills and Kayak Island are isolated mountain blocks located along strike from each other within the foreland of the St. Elias orogen in southern Alaska. These blocks preserve an erosional surface that was deformed by slip on northwest-dipping reverse faults in the Pleistocene. We suggest that the Suckling Hills Fault and Kayak Island Zone form a segmented fault network that links with the Bering Glacier structure to the north. This fault network separates the central Yakataga fold and thrust belt from complex, multiply deformed structures in the western syntaxis. Ongoing accretion of the Yakutat microplate to North America results in translation of structures of the fold and thrust belt into the western syntaxis. The composite Suckling Hills Fault, Kayak Island Zone, and Bering Glacier structure may have formed because the older structures of the fold and thrust belt were unfavorably oriented within the western syntaxis region. This pattern of deformation provides a template for understanding the complex deformation within the core of the western syntaxis and predicts refolding and straightening of the western syntaxis margin with continued accretion. This study provides an analog for structural overprinting and changing deformation patterns through time in orogenic corners.