orthorhombic fault fracture patterns and non plane strain in a synthetic transfer zone during rifting lennard shelf canning basin western australia abstract a complex series of faults occur within transfer zones normal to the wnw trending rifted northern margin of the canning basin western australia these zones controlled basinal fluid flow and the formation of some carbonate hosted mississippi valley type zn pb deposits along the basin margin during devonian to carboniferous rifting the study area has a regional fault geometry similar to a synthetic overlapping transfer zone surface and underground mapping in this transfer zone combined with 3d modelling indicate the faults and related extension fractures have an orthorhombic geometry the orthorhombic fault fracture mesh developed in response to three dimensional non plane strain in which the intermediate finite extension magnitude was non zero pre mineralisation marine calcite fill in the fault fracture mesh indicates that it formed early in the deformation history later deformation that overprints the zn pb mineralisation and fault fracture mesh was associated with a different maximum extension direction and this modified and reactivated the faults with both dip slip and oblique slip movement and tilting of earlier structures the orthorhombic geometry is not observed at a regional scale 10 10 km indicating probable scale dependant behaviour this study indicates that this transfer zone developed either by 1 strain partitioning with synchronous strike slip structures and adjacent zones of non plane extension or 2 by a component of non plane extension sub parallel to the basin margin followed by subsequent transtensional overprint of the system preferred model synthetic overlapping transfer zones are inferred to be key regions where orthorhombic fault geometries may develop

the multiple inverse method applied to meso scale faults in mid quaternary fore arc sediments near the triple trench junction off central japan the multiple inverse method for fault slip data is applied to meso scale faults observed in mid quaternary fore arc sediments near the triple trench junction oa the boso peninsula japan data from the otadai umegase and kokumoto formations were processed and three stresses were obtained as significant solutions vertical axial compression and triaxial stresses with the s3 axis in wnw ese and nne ssw directions the triaxial stresses were determined from the otadai and umegase data however the wnw ese tensile stress is not detected from the youngest kokumoto suggesting that the stress is older than the formation the area was subject to a wnw ese tensile stress 01 2 1 0 ma but tensile direction changed to a ne sw trend thereafter the succession was simultaneous with a tectonic event in the landward slope of the sagami trough suggesting that the subduction of the philippine sea plate aaected the stresses in the overriding plate the older tensile stress was probably a manifestation of the gravitational collapse of the hayama mineoka ridge which was growing parallel to the trough the inferred stress history is concordant with the variation of plate convergence at the trough 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

evolution of paleostress fields and brittle deformation of the tornquist zone in scania sweden during permo mesozoic and cenozoic times abstract the nw se oriented sorgenfrei tornquist zone stz has been thoroughly studied during the last 25 years especially by means of well data and seismic profiles we present the results of a first brittle tectonic analysis based on about 850 dykes veins and minor fault slip data measured in the field in scania including paleostress reconstruction we discuss the relationships between normal and strike slip faulting in scania since the permian extension to the late cretaceous tertiary structural inversions our paleostress determinations reveal six successive or coeval main stress states in the evolution of scania since the permian two stress states correspond to normal faulting with ne sw and nw se extensions one stress state is mainly of reverse type with ne sw compression and three stress states are strike slip in type with nnw sse wnw ese and nne ssw directions of compression the ne sw extension partly corresponds to the late carboniferous permian important extensional period dated by dykes and fault mineralisations however extension existed along a similar direction during the mesozoic it has been locally observed until within the danian a perpendicular nw se extension reveals the occurrence of stress permutations the nnw sse strike slip episode is also expected to belong to the late carboniferous permian episode and is interpreted in terms of right lateral wrench faulting along stz oriented faults the inversion process has been characterised by reverse and strike slip faulting related to the ne sw compressional stress state this study highlights the importance of extensional tectonics in northwest europe since the end of the palaeozoic until the end of the cretaceous the importance and role of wrench faulting in the tectonic evolution of the sorgenfrei tornquist zone are discussed

stress field constraints on intraplate seismicity in eastern north america focal mechanisms of 32 north american midplate earthquakes mo 3 8 6 5 were evaluated to determine if slip is compatible with a broad scale regional stress field derived from plate driving forces and if so under what conditions stress regime pore pressure and frictional coefficient using independent information on in situ stress orientations from well bore breakout and hydraulic fracturing data and assuming that the regional principal stresses are in approximately horizontal and vertical planes 10o the constraint that the slip vector represents the direction of maximum resolved shear stress on the fault plane was used to calculate relative stress magnitudes defined by the parameterb s2 s3 s s3 from the fault stress geometry as long as the focal mechanism has a component of oblique slip i e the b axis does not coincide with the intermediate principal stress direction this calculation identifies which of the two nodal planes is a geometrically possible slip plane gephart 1985 slip in a majority of the earthquakes 25 of 32 was found to be geometrically compatible with reactivation of favorably oriented preexisting fault planes in response to the broad scale uniform regional stress field slip in five events was clearly inconsistent with the regional stress field and appears to require a localized stress anomaly to explain the seismicity significantly all five of these events occurred prior to 1970 when many regional networks were installed and their focal mechanisms are inconsistent with more recent solutions of nearby smaller events the frictional likelihood of the geometrically possible slip on the selected fault planes was evaluated in the context of conventional frictional faulting theory the ratio of shear to normal stress on the fault planes at hypocentral depth was calculated relative to an assumed regional stress field regional stress magnitudes were determined from 1 s s3 ratios based on the frictional strength of optimally oriented faults the basis for the linear brittle portion of lithospheric strength profiles 2 the computed relative stress magnitude b values and 3 a vertical principal stress assumed equal to the lithostat two end member possibilities were examined to explain the observed slip in these less than optimally oriented fault planes first the frictional coefficient was held constant on all faults hydrostatic pore pressure was assumed regionally and the fault zone pore pressure was determined since pore pressure is a measurable quantity with real limits in the crust p0 s3 this end member case was used to determine which of the geometrically possible slip planes were frictionally likely slip planes alternately pore pressure was fixed at hydrostatic everywhere and the required relative lowered frictional coefficient of the fault zone was computed slip in 23 of the 25 geometrically compatible earthquakes was determined to also be frictionally likely in response to an approximately horizontal and vertical regional stress field derived from plate driving forces whose magnitudes are constrained by the frictional strength of optimally oriented faults assuming hydrostatic pore pressure regionally the conditions for slip on these 23 relatively well oriented earthquake faults were determined relative to this regional crustal strength model and require only moderate increases in pore pressure between about 0 4 0 8 of lithostatic hydrostatic is about 0 37 of lithostatic or alternately moderate lowering 50 of the frictional coefficient on the faults which slipped superlithostatic pore pressures are not required focal mechanisms for the two other earthquakes with slip vectors geometrically consistent with the regional stress field however did require pore pressures far exceeding the least principal stress or extremely low coefficients of friction these events may reflect either local stress rotations undetected with current sampling or poorly constrained focal mechanisms the analysis also confirmed a roughly north to south contrast in stress regime between the central eastern united states and southeastern canada previously inferred from a contrast in focal mecha nisms between the two areas most central eastern united states earthquakes occur in response to a strike slip stress regime whereas the southeastern canadian events require a thrust faulting stress regime this contrast in stress regime with a constant maximum horizontal stress orientation determined by far field plate driving forces requires a systematic lateral variation in relative stress magnitudes superposition of stresses due to simple flexural models of glacial rebound stresses are of the correct sense to explain the observed lateral variation but maximum computed rebound related stress magnitude changes are quite small about 10 mpa and do not appear large enough to account for the stress regime change if commonly assumed stress magnitudes determined from frictional strength apply to the crust at seismogenic depths

spatial variations in stress within the 1987 whittier narrows california aftershock sequence new techniques and results the ml 5 9 whittier narrows california earthquake of october 1 1987 triggered a complex aftershock sequence the aftershocks had many different focal mechanisms including thrusting on e w striking north dipping planes similar to the main shock right lateral motion on nw se striking planes similar to the ml 5 3 aftershock on october 4 1987 thrusting on n s striking planes and left lateral motion on n s striking planes i attempt to interpret these mechanisms in terms of a stress field that may have caused them previously stress inversion methods based on focal mechanisms assumed that the stress field was spatially uniform in order to test for the spatially varying effect of the main shock s dislocation on the aftershocks focal mechanisms a new inversion technique was developed that solves for a uniform stress field that is superimposed on a given spatially varying stress field a series of simulations were performed to test both the new method and an older method that uses only the uniform component of the stress field these simulations show that both techniques work but will be limited by the amount of noise in the data and the accuracy to which the given spatially varying stress field resembles the actual spatially varying stresses most importantly the simulations show that the older methods do work when the stress field has a uniform component that is at least as large as the spatially varying component the simulations also show that when applying the older stress inversion techniques one can determine if the results are valid and the amount of spatially varying stresses present by examining the misfit between the data and the model application of these techniques to the whittier narrows aftershocks suggests that the uniform component of the stress field and the complex faulting corresponds to the response of an elastic halfspace to a simple regional n s compression the misfit between the data and the uniform model demonstrate the presence of spatially varying stresses at whittier narrows however their form as shown by the simulations can not be determined with this data set and these techniques

the marine based nw fennoscandian ice sheet glacial and deglacial dynamics as reconstructed from submarine landforms abstract the configuration of the marine based nw fennoscandian ice sheet during the last glacial maximum lgm and deglaciation is reconstructed using detailed swath bathymetry and high resolution seismic data the investigated area covers about 10 000 km 2 of the continental shelf off troms northern norway large scale morphology is characterized by cross shelf troughs coast parallel troughs and banks based on mega scale glacial lineations msgl lateral and shear zone moraines and grounding zone systems the extent and dynamics of the ice sheet during the lgm are deduced msgl indicate fast flowing ice streams in the cross shelf troughs while the glacial morphology on the banks indicates more sluggish ice here the marine based part of the fennoscandian ice sheet was sourced from ice domes in the east via fjord and valley systems inshore using a balance flux approach we estimate palaeo ice stream velocities during the lgm to be approximately 350 m year three deglaciation events have been reconstructed i during the torsken 1 event the ice sheet halted or readvanced to form groundings zone wedges gzw and the torsken moraine ii several still stands or readvances characterized the ice behaviour on the shallower banks during the torsken 2 event iii during the flesen event prominent end moraines in the inner parts of the troughs and banks were deposited the locations of the end moraines and gzw in the troughs indicate that the retreat of marine based ice streams in areas of reverse bed slope was episodic probably mainly due to the variation in widths of the cross shelf troughs

understanding kinematic data from the moine thrust zone in terms of a kinematics based mathematical model of deforming thrust wedges abstract a salient recess pair along the moine thrust zone exhibits significant lateral kinematic variations specifically the more steeply dipping portion of the thrust surface associated with the recess shows evidence for greater strain magnitudes and more out of the plane motion than the adjoining salient additionally a subset of the grain shape data has grain shape approximations with their long axes oriented perpendicular to the regional transport direction to more fully understand these kinematic features we developed a kinematics based mathematical model of thrust wedge deformation our numerical model predicts an increase in strain magnitude as well as non plane strain flattening in the region of a thrust ramp consistent with the strain patterns observed within the recess along the moine thrust zone furthermore in the absence of a lateral confining boundary condition much of the model thrust wedge experiences transport perpendicular maximum extension except for the region closest to the thrust where simple shear deformation is dominant using our numerical model we predict the amount of lateral confining strain needed to induce plane strain deformation ps as well as the amount of lateral confining strain necessary to make the long axis of the strain ellipsoid parallel with the transport direction parallel we have found that the incremental parallel can be as much as 42 of the incremental strain magnitude thus we consider transport perpendicular lineations like those seen along the moine thrust zone to be the result of lateral confining boundary conditions that are weak enough to allow transport perpendicular maximum extension

determination of stress from slip data faults and folds a new technique is derived to invert slickenside data for the stress field that caused the faulting episode this inversion is simplified by the assumption that the magnitude of the tangential traction on the various fault planes at the time of rupture is similar study of three normal faulting regimes shows that the inversion derived with this assumption yields results that closely match older inversions that did not include the assumption hence the assumption may be valid and is shown to be justified by analyzing a simple fracture criterion application of slip data inversions is extended from faulting regimes to the slip on bedding plane faults in folding regimes comparison of the inversion results with the geometry of the folds shows this application to be successful greatly increasing the number of data sets that can be used to find the paleostress field

the multiple inverse method a new technique to separate stresses from heterogeneous fault slip data abstract a new inverse technique is presented here to separate stresses from heterogeneous fault slip data without a priori information on the stresses or on the classification of faults according to the stresses four parameters are determined by the inversion one for the shape of the stress ellipsoid and three for the direction of the stress axes accordingly the inversion is equivalent to the projection of the fault slip data to a point in four dimensional parameter space the data are divided into k element subsets to which the inverse technique is applied where k 4 or 5 is the optimal choice for the stability of solutions and for the reduction of computation significant solutions are identified as clusters in parameter space the technique is demonstrated first by simulated fault slip data as an example field data obtained from miocene fore arc sediments in western japan were processed by the method

energy constraints on kinematic models of oblique faulting loma prieta versus parkfield coalinga the loma prieta earthquake was a combination of right lateral strike slip and reverse faulting this oblique motion has been explained by a kinematic model that has the fault accommodate both the translation and convergence required by the pacific north american plate motions and a local bend in the san andreas fault however in other areas of california such as parkfield coalinga this combination of motions is taken up by decoupled strike slip and thrust faults in this paper i develop a simple physical model based on applying hamilton s principle to the energy released in earthquakes that allows us to determine if a region should undergo oblique or decoupled faulting this determination depends on the dip of available faults and the amount of convergence relative to the amount of translation these energy constraints correctly predict the different types of faulting at loma prieta and parkfield coalinga

analysis of fault slip inversions do they constrain stress or strain rate fault slip data commonly are used to infer the orientations and relative magnitudes of either the principal stresses or the principal strain rates which are not necessarily parallel or equal at the local scale of an individual fault the shear plane and slip direction define the orientations of the local principal strain rate axes but not in general the local principal stress axes at a large scale the orientations of p and t axes maxima for sets of fault slip data do not provide accurate inversion solutions for either strain rate or stress the quantitative inversion of such fault slip data however provides direct constraints on the orientations and relative magnitudes of the global principal strain rates to interpret the inversion solution as constraining the global principal stresses requires that 1 the fault slip pattern must have a characteristic symmetry no lower than orthorhombic 2 the material must be mechanically isotropic and 3 there must be a linear constitutive relationship between the global stress and the global strain rate isotropic linear elastic constitutive equations are appropriate to describe the local deformation surrounding an individual slip discontinuity fault slip inversions however constrain the characteristics of a large scale cataclastic flow which is described by constitutive equations that are probably but to an unknown degree anisotropic and nonlinear such material behavior would not strictly satisfy the requirements for the stress interpretation thus at the present state of knowledge fault slip inversion solutions are most reliably interpreted as constraining the principal strain rates

seismogenic deformation field in the mojave block and implications for tectonics of the eastern california shear zone from the aftershocks of the 1992 landers earthquake we infer the orientation of the principal strain rate axes d 1 d 2 d 3 d 1 lengthening their relative magnitude and the relative spin of fault blocks by using a micropolar continuum model to invert the seismic p and t axes the seismogenic deformation is consistent with the geodetic measurements of the coseismic displacement and with the secular deformation of the central mojave block regionally the aftershock data define two major domains within the central mojave block 1 the western mojave block including the san bernardino mountains and the epicentral area of the big bear earthquake which is characterized by e w d 1 lengthening and n s d 3 shortening and 2 the central mojave block including the landers surface rupture zone which is characterized by nw se d 1 and ne sw d 3 inversion for the principal strain axes of geodetically measured coseismic displacements across the big bear and landers seismogenic zones gives results similar to the aftershock inversions for those areas indicating that the aftershocks accommodate a deformation similar to the main rupture and do not reflect elastic rebound or residual stresses the background seismicity for 1981 to 1991 shows the same characteristic d 1 and d 3 orientations for the two domains indicating that the secular seismogenic strain has the same regional geometry as the 1992 coseismic deformation the micropolar inversion also provides values of the relative vorticity parameter w which reflects a difference between the vorticity of a shearing continuum and the vorticity of fault bounded blocks rotating within tabular seismogenic shear zones the observed fault geometry along the kickapoo fault suggests a pinned block model for the local block rotation that is consistent with the values of w obtained from our inversions we interpret the regional nw se orientation of d 1 in the central mojave block to be characteristic of the dextral eastern california shear zone which transfers approximately 22 of the pacific north american plate motion from the san andreas system to the walker lane belt in eastern california our results and geodetic determinations of the secular shear strain in the central mojave block indicate that the locus of nw dextral shear generally lies between the san bernardino mountains and the pisgah fault

the typical large scale superposed folds in the central south china implications for mesozoic intracontinental deformation of the south china block abstract the south china block has experienced polyphase intensive intracontinental deformation in the mesozoic time large scale superposed folds in central south china document the mesozoic tectonic events within the south china block here we present new structural data related to synfolding deformation coupling with chronological data to reconstruct the deformation sequence and tectonic regime during crustal shortening these data indicate that the superposed folds dominated by a two stage tectonic compressive regime experienced two phases of superposed buckle folding leading to the orthogonal superposition of ne sw trending folds onto wnw ese trending folds between the late middle jurassic and the earliest early cretaceous our structural analysis together with geochronological data for this area suggests that the south china block predominately underwent two phases of intracontinental deformation during the mesozoic the early phase of tectonism d1 is characterized by a late middle triassic to earliest early jurassic ne sw compression causing the occurrence of an orogeny perpendicular shortening accompanying with evident magmatism this tectonic event was most likely associated with progressive clockwise collision of the south china block toward the north in the indosinian event subsequent tectonic activity d2 between the late middle jurassic and the earliest early cretaceous contributed to a phase of nw se contraction that overprinted the early ne sw shortening in the interior of the south china block generating a large scale nw convex fold belt and the typical large scale superposed folds within the central south china block the later tectonism was probably driven by the nw directed subduction of the paleo pacific plate beneath the eastern part of the asian continent

inversion of field data in fault tectonics to obtain the regional stress i single phase fault populations a new method of computing the stress tensor summary we attempt a general definition of the inverse problem of computing the components of the regional stress tensor from a set of field data including the measurements of the strike and dip of several faults and the directions and senses of relative motion along these faults as indicated by slickenslides in previous treatments of this problem no experimental errors could be taken into account except those in measuring the pitch of slickenslides thus errors in the orientation of the fault strike and dip which have considerable practical importance were neglected in our work all experimental errors in the field measurements are taken into account so that the agreement between the computed stress tensor and the set of field measurements can be rigorously checked

kinematic and dynamic fault slip analyses implications from the surface rupture of the 1999 chi chi taiwan earthquake the 1999 chi chi earthquake created a 100 km long surface rupture on the chelungpu thrust fault in taiwan due to convergence between the phillipine sea and eurasian plates fault slip measurements were made by several researchers from the entire length of the rupture directly following the earthquake and can thus be attributed to a single tectonic event conventional fault slip analyses are applied to these data and the results are compared with independent seismological and kinematic observations unlike many fault slip analyses complications due to multiple deformations can be categorically excluded and the results can be evaluated from the seismological and plate movement data kinematic analyses of fault slip data that are weighted by displacement show sub horizontal nw se shortening that is parallel to the plate convergence vector a single fault plane solution satisfies almost all the data right dihedra and trihedra solutions also satisfy almost all the surface rupture measurements and give 1 in a nw se orientation that is similar to the results of stress inversion and to inversion from earthquakes in the chi chi earthquake sequence despite criticisms of fault slip analysis methods these results show that fault slip analyses from data collected along major faults which have not witnessed multiple deformation events can be valid homogeneous strain and stress states exist in the sense that kinematic and dynamic solutions can be found that fit essentially all the data and these solutions have tectonic significance

tertiary strike slip faulting in southeastern mongolia and implications for asian tectonics abstract geologic maps have long portrayed the late cretaceous recent geologic history of southeastern mongolia as tectonically quiescent we present new data based on outcrop observations that indicate the northeast trending east gobi fault zone egfz was reactivated in the cenozoic as a sinistral strike slip fault system inversions of cenozoic fault slip data imply that faulting was associated with north northwest subhorizontal shortening and east northeast subhorizontal extension we propose that faulting is tertiary in age based on published interpretations of seismic reflection data which reveal that the mid cretaceous 100 95 ma unconformity is deformed by strike slip faults and based on field observation of strike slip faults and fracture sets that cut upper cretaceous and cenozoic strata but lack evidence for neotectonic activity published seismicity maps also appear to argue against significant quaternary faulting within the egfz these new data may lend credence to published models proposing a middle miocene or older kinematic linkage between the egfz and the altyn tagh fault in china the recognition that the egfz has a history of left lateral displacement in both the early mesozoic and cenozoic means that currently available estimates of offset based on displaced paleozoic rocks constrain total offset only this reactivation history supports the notion that inherited lithospheric structures are important in controlling the location and thus modes of intracontinental deformation in asia as a function of collisional far field effects and evolving boundary conditions of the pacific margin

state of stress and modern deformation of the northern basin and range province constraints on the current stress regime of the actively extending northern basin and range province are provided by deformation data focal mechanisms and fault slip studies hydraulic fracturing in situ stress measurements borehole elongation breakouts analyses and alignment of young volcanic vents the integrated data indicate significant variations both in principal stress orientations and magnitudes an approximately e w least principal stress direction appears to characterize both the eastern and western margins of the basin and range province whereas in the active interior parts of the province extension occurs in response to a least principal stress oriented nw to n60 w the contrast in stress orientations between the province boundaries and in the interior suggests that along the margins the least principal stress direction may be locally controlled by the generally northerly trending profound lithospheric discontinuities associated with these margins active deformation along the southeastern and western province margins is characterized by a combination of strike slip and normal faulting focal mechanisms along northeastern province margin wasatch front and in central nevada indicate a combination of normal and oblique normal faulting temporal regional and depth dependent variations in the relative magnitudes of the vertical and maximum horizontal stresses can explain much of the observed variations in deformation styles however some depth variation in faulting style inferred from focal mechanisms may be apparent and simply a function of the attitude of fault planes being reactivated evidence for significant temporal variation or multiple cycles of variation in relative stress magnitude comes from the sierran front basin and range boundary region where recent earthquakes are predominantly strike slip whereas the profound relative vertical relief across the sierra frontal fault zone in the last 9 10 m y implies a normal faulting stress regime using the best data on stress orientation relative stress magnitudes are constrained from slip vectors of major earthquakes and young fault displacements analysis of well constrained slip vectors in the owens valley california area indicate that large temporal variations in the magnitude of the approximately n s oriented maximum horizontal stress are required to explain dominantly dip slip and strike slip offsets on subparallel faults similar faulting relations are observed throughout much of the boundary zone between the basin and range sierra nevada including the walker lane belt along the eastern province margin in the wasatch front area in utah available data suggest that the maximum and minimum horizontal stresses may be approximately equal at depths of 4 5 km earthquake focal mechanisms in this area suggest more variability in relative magnitude of the two horizontal stresses with depth furthermore superimposed sets of young fault striae along a segment of the wasatch fault also indicate temporal variations of relative stress magnitudes sources of regional and temporal variations in the stress field may be linked to variable shear tractions applied to the base of the brittle crust related to intrusion thermally induced flow and the influence of the san andreas plate boundary although difficult to date accurately the fault slip data suggest that the temporal variations in relative magnitudes stress may occur on the time scale of both a single major earthquake cycle 1000 5000 years and multiple earthquake cycles 10 000 years

post collisional tectonics in the northern cottian alps italian western alps field mapping and structural analysis have allowed us to characterise the fault geometry and the post metamorphic tectonics of an area located in the northern cottian alps inner western alps two main faulting stages were distinguished here the first oligocene early miocene is related to the development of an e w striking left normal shear zone this shear zone is interpreted as an antithetical of two regional n s right lateral structures the col del lis trana deformation zone ltz and the colle delle finestre deformation zone cfz the second faulting stage post early miocene is related mainly to the development of n s normal faults coeval with the extensional reactivation of the ltz and the cfz we discuss this kinematic evolution in the framework of the geodynamic evolution of the western alps

tectonic significance of fault slip data abstract the statistical analysis of populations of minor faults is commonly used by structural geologists working in areas of brittle rock it is based on measurements of fault attitude direction and sense of slip at individual sampling localities results are classically interpreted as indicators of stress or strain rate fields assuming a homogeneous stress or strain rate tensor respectively however fault patterns are expected to vary with time because of displacements rigid rotations and internal strains which generally occur along boundaries of fault bounded blocks as deformation proceeds thus in the general situation where early faults accumulate displacements and rigid rotations and where new faults develop during progressive deformation fault slip data can be rather complex and variable in space and reflect neither local stress or strain rate tensors nor finite strains and finite rotations in a simple way we use two examples of faulted regions to illustrate the spatial variability of fault slip data this can be due to local complications at the edges of fault blocks or to complex kinematic conditions at regional boundaries such complications may make it difficult to deduce a consistent and simple pattern of either stresses or strain rates instead our results suggest that information contained in fault slip data can be pertinent to finite deformation in particular the principal axes that we have deduced from the analysis of fault slip data are consistent with the finite displacements at block boundaries that we have calculated by numerical restoration

the san andreas fault system through the transverse ranges as illuminated by earthquakes the pattern of seismogenic faulting in the san gorgonio pass san bernardino basin area of the san andreas fault saf zone is mapped from about 7000 quality selected focal mechanisms 1981 nov 92 they are derived from phase data of the southern california network by a relocation procedure based on location dependent station corrections and by a grid search procedure about 3 4 of the mechanisms have been interpreted as planes of rupture or slip planes that delineate many distinct faults one of these faults is right lateral dips steeply northeast and is continuous trough the san gorgonio pass area we interpret it as the main branch of the saf a very large earthquake seems possible on this portion of the saf because of its continuity and because of the unusually deep reach of the seismicity 23 km southwest of this fault a volume of diffuse and persistent seismicity has a sharp downward cut off which may reflect a basal detachment dipping 20 northeast and intersecting the saf along the deepest seismicity northeast of the saf the floor of the seismicity is shallower by as much as 10 km stress characteristics are derived from slip planes in 10 selected subregions the regime is transpressional near the constricting bend of the saf at san gorgonio pass it is dominated by horizontal extension in the san bernardino basin area and it is again transpressional in the eastern san gorgonio mountains north of the cucamonga thrust the broad features of this zonation may be related to the intersection of the saf with the pinto mountain fault and with the san jacinto fault a change of fault kinematics in the yucaipa cluster coincides with the 1992 landers and big bear main shocks and may be a manifestation of static stress change

space time variations of stresses in the miocene quaternary along the calama olacapato el toro fault zone central andes abstract we describe the temporal and spatial changes in the tectonic state of stress occurred during the miocene quaternary in the trans orogen area of the calama olacapato el toro cot fault zone in the central andes at about 24 s within the northern portion of the puna plateau this work sheds new light on the complexity of stress pattern distribution in general and contributes to the analysis of the relationships between tectonics and volcanism and of the seismic hazard of the area field geological surveys along with kinematic analysis and numerical inversion of 140 new fault slip measurements have revealed that this portion of the cot zone previously considered a continuous long lived lineament in reality has been subjected to three different kinematic regimes 1 a miocene transpressional phase with the maximum principal stress 1 chiefly trending nne ssw 2 an extensional phase that started by 9 ma with a horizontal nw se trending minimum principal stress 3 and 3 a left lateral strike slip phase with a horizontal e w 1 and n s 3 dating to the late pliocene quaternary which decreases toward the westernmost part of the studied zone where it transitions to extension producing a n s trending graben structure hence even if transcurrence is still active in the eastern portion of the cot as focal mechanisms of crustal earthquakes indicate our study demonstrates that extension is becoming the predominant structural style of deformation at least in the western region the major changes in the tectonic regimes are attributed to changes in the magnitude of the boundary forces due to subduction processes whereas gravitational effect of a thickened crust might be responsible for the overall orogen perpendicular extension

interaction of faults and perturbation of slip influence of anisotropic stress states in the presence of fault friction and comparison between wallace bott and 3d distinct element models abstract two decades after their birth the validity of fault slip inversion methods is still strongly debated these methods are based upon a very simplified mechanical background the wallace bott hypothesis following previous studies the 3d distinct element method 3dec software is used to explore the effect of varying stress anisotropy i e the shape ratio on slip perturbation along pairs of faults two end member configurations are modelled in taking into account fault friction and internal deformation of faulted blocks the first model deals with a relatively simple case where two nonintersecting conjugate normal faults are reactivated in an oblique normal stress regime the second one simulates an extreme situation where two perpendicular intersecting faults are submitted to oblique extension the average direction of fault slip predicted by 3dec models is compared to the corresponding slip predicted by the simplified wallace bott model for the two simulated cases it is shown that results from 3dec and wallace bott models are mutually consistent and argue for the validity of fault slip data inversion methods consistency remains even if slip is significantly deviated near the intersection line of faults these deviations depend on the degree of anisotropy of applied stresses in presence of fault friction furthermore modelling results suggest that for intersecting faults with convergent slip directions consideration of fault friction in the models leads to reduction of slip perturbation in other words modelling results lead to the nonintuitive conclusion that the validity of the simplified wallace bott model is strengthened when 3dec model s complexity i e the number of parameters incorporated increases

forty years of paleostress analysis has it attained maturity abstract powerful methods of paleostress analysis from fault slip data have been used since the 1970 s and have demonstrated their capacity for reconstructing stress fields with tectonic significance however in some cases these methods have been applied to samples that do not fulfill basic requirements or developed on the basis of unsound conceptual models most methods of fault slip are based on the wallace bott principle dynamic paradigm while others invoke the necessity of remaining within the alternative kinematic paradigm therefore inferring only finite strain or strain rate axes the scientific community shares neither standard procedures for applying these methods nor standard parameters for assessing the quality of results this indicates that paleostress analysis has not attained maturity it is necessary to see back to the conceptual and methological bases following accurate procedures of data collection using additional field observations and critically assessing the results within the tectonic setting spatial and temporal heterogeneity of stress fields over all scales makes the mean stress tensor obtained from site analysis just an abstract notion though indispensable for understanding lithosphere dynamics

stress and the direction of slip on fault planes the shear stress direction on a fault plane depends only on four of the six components of the stress tensor assuming only that the slip direction marks the shear stress direction on any fault plane and that stress is homogeneous it is possible to estimate these four stress parameters from populations of fault planes with known slip directions as several workers have observed different formulations of the problem may yield varying best fitting stresses and estimates of uncertainty in the simplest case no assumptions are made regarding the orientations of fault planes relative to the stress tensor thus the technique allows for the possibility that the fault planes may be very weak here we present simple analytical and graphical descriptions of the field of admissible fault geometries relative to any four parameter stress model which can be used to illustrate the significance of various inverse strategies in particular this paper explores the effects of using two alternative measures of misfit between an observed fault datum and stress model 1 the pole rotation the angle between the observed and predicted slip direction on the observed fault plane and 2 the minimum rotation the smallest angle between the observed fault geometry and any fault geometry which is consistent with the model by allowing for variation of the fault plane as well as the slip vector the minimum rotation procedure generally achieves a more stable and presumably realistic estimate of the actual discrepancy between a fault observation and stress model than the pole rotation procedure in a test case using 17 earthquake focal mechanisms from the yuii region of eastern taiwan separate inversions based on the two misfit criteria yield different optimum stress models and uncertainty estimates additional constraints on the stress tensor such as the effect of friction can be superimposed on the ones used here

constitutive behavior and stability of frictional sliding of granite an understanding of the frictional sliding on faults that can lead to earthquakes requires a knowledge of both constitutive behavior of the sliding surfaces and its mechanical interaction with the loading system we have determined the constitutive parameters for frictional sliding of initially bare surfaces of westerly granite using a recently developed high pressure rotary shear apparatus that allows long distances of sliding and therefore a greater assurance of attaining steady state behavior from experiments conducted at room temperature and normal stresses of 27 84 mpa several important results have been found 1 a gouge layer 100 to 200 m thick was developed from the initially bare rock surfaces after 18 to 70 mm of sliding 2 the steady state frictional resistance attained after about 10 mm of sliding is proportional to the negative of the logarithm of the sliding velocity 3 abrup changes in the velocity of sliding result in initial changes in the frictional resistance which have the same sign as the velocity change and are followed by a gradual decay to a new steady state value over a characteristic distance of sliding this velocity weakening behavior is essentially identical with that found by several previous workers on the same material at lower normal stress 4 our results are well described by a two state variable constitutive law the values of the constitutive parameters are quite similar to those found previously at low normal stress but the characteristic distance is about an order of magnitude smaller than that found at 10 mpa normal stress with thicker layers of coarser gouge 5 we have approximated our results with a one state variable constitutive law and compared the results with the predictions of existing nonlinear stability analysis in addition we have extended the stability analysis to systems possessing two state variables with such formulations good agreement is found between the experimentally observed and theoretically predicted transitions between stable and unstable sliding these results allow a better understanding of the instabilities that lead to earthquakes

slip preference on pre existing faults a guide tool for the separation of heterogeneous fault slip data in extensional stress regimes abstract synthetic fault slip data have been considered in the present paper in order to examine through a simple graphical manner the validity and use of the widely mentioned and applied criteria such as the slip preference slip tendency kinematic p and t axes transport orientation and strain compatibility the examination and description concern extensional stress regimes whose greatest principal stress axis 1 always remains in vertical position as in andersonian stress states in particular radial extension re radial pure extension re pe pure extension pe pure extension transtension pe trn and transtension trn are examined with the aid of the win tensor stress inversion software in all of these extensional stress regimes only extensional faults can be activated the lower dip angle of the reactivated faults is about 40 assuming that the coefficient of friction is no smaller than 0 6 the increase of the stress ratio and or the fault dip angle up to 70 results in the increase of the slip deviation from the normal activation based on the present examination of the slip preference and slip tendency in different extensional stress regimes a new simple and practical method is proposed herein in order to separate originally heterogeneous fault slip data into homogeneous fault groups by which different extensional stress regimes could be determined the application of the method on the already published fault slip data of lemnos island supports its validity since over 90 the resulted fault groups and stress regimes coincide to the already published ones

curved slickenfibers a new brittle shear sense indicator with application to a sheared serpentinite abstract brittle fault zones are commonly characterized by penetrative fracturing of the rock to form an aggregate of blocks so that the rock becomes in essence like a granular material composed of rigid grains the surfaces of the blocks or grains have a wide distribution of orientations and shearing of the blocks past one another on these planes accommodates the large scale motion i e the macromotion in the fault zone during a macromotion that is a non coaxial deformation the rigid blocks and their surfaces may undergo a progressive rigid rotation that is distinct from the macromotion and is described by the microspin if a macroscopic non coaxial deformation has monoclinic symmetry this symmetry should be reflected in the sense of rigid rotation of the blocks and their surfaces on the surfaces of the blocks which are local shear planes the history of displacement may be recorded by mineral fibers that grow progessively with displacement because of the rigid rotation of the local shear planes slickenfiber lineations commonly are curved the sense of curvature from the youngest to the oldest part of the fiber looking down the normal to the local shear plane is different for those planes whose normals are on opposite sides of the unique monoclinic symmetry plane for the macroscopic shearing the intersection of the symmetry plane with the plane of the fault zone defines the macroscopic slip direction and the sense of rigid rotation of the local shear planes determined from the lineations defines the shear sense application of this technique to the disrupted and sheared margins of the feather river peridotite in the northern sierra nevada of california indicates that late deformation involved dextral normal oblique slip along the melones fault zone

fine scale partitioning of contemporary strain in the southern walker lane implications for accommodating divergent strike slip motion treating the crust as a micropolar continuum and inverse modeling a high quality catalog of earthquake focal mechanisms reveals that km scale heterogeneous strain is partitioned at km scales into pairs of plane strains with sub perpendicular principal axes these earthquakes occurred in a shallow crustal volume centered on the western indian wells valley of eastern california the site of divergent right lateral strike slip motion along the boundary between the sierran microplate and the southern basin and range province the seismic events defining the plane strains occur in a diffuse seismic source zone and cannot be additionally subdivided on the basis of the type of strain they accommodate the results indicate that seismic moment release for background earthquakes is partitioned into events associated with either fault zone perpendicular extension by normal faults or horizontal shearing by conjugate strike slip faults the spatial scales over which this partitioning occurs suggest that outcrop scale brittle faults may in some cases record nearly perpendicular plane strains related to a single continuous deformation

crustal earthquake instability in relation to the depth variation of frictional slip properties recent stability studies using constitutive relations of the type found by dieterich ruina and others to describe frictional slip of rocks in the laboratory have provided a new explanation of the depth cutoff of shallow crustal earthquakes the class of friction laws discussed has the property that the sliding stress depends on normal stress temperature slip rate and slip history for sliding at a fixed slip rate v and fixed environment e g normal stress temperature etc the shear strength evolves toward a steady state value ss v stability analysis show that for d ss v dv 0 velocity strengthening implies stable steady state sliding at least for a broad class of constitutive laws more fully described in the paper experiments by dieterich and by tullis and weeks on westerly granite with mature sliding surfaces indicate that d ss v dv is negative at room temperature whereas higher temperature experiments by stesky show that d ss v dv becomes positive above approximately 300 c therefore in the case of the earth where temperature increases with depth the above observations seem to suggest that the depth cutoff of crustal earthquake activity can be understood in terms of the variation of the frictional response with depth from a regime with d ss v dv 0 this is not inconsistent with but rather refines the suggestion by sibson and others that the depth cutoff is due to a transition from brittle friction to ductile flow further our results show definitively that the shallow depth confinement of seismicity is compatible with a model in which deformation is localized to a fault zone extending well below the seismogenic depth the depth confinement does not require a model showing transition to a zone of broadly distributed creep flow beneath the seismogenic zone following mavko a two dimensional quasi static strike slip fault model is analyzed but using different numerical procedures and a depth variation of frictional properties based on the laboratory data mentioned above and the lachenbruch sass depth variation of temperature for the san andreas fault the resulting predictions of such features as the confinement of crustal earthquakes to shallow depths the development of locked patches the recurrence time for the seismic cycle the seismic stress drop and displacement etc are generally in agreement with the observed characteristics of large scale strike slip earthquakes along the san andreas fault calculations based on the laboratory data predict for example that stick slip nucleates around 5 7 km that large seismic motion occurs around the nucleation depth and above but diminishes gradually to zero at 13 15 km depths that rapid postseismic creep occurs over another 3 4 km depth and that at greater depths steady slip consistent with the average plate velocity is only modestly perturbed by the earthquakes occurring above the most uncertain parameter is the slip weakening distance l for evolution of fault surface state we illustrate how features of the predicted earthquake cycles vary with l over the range for which calculations are feasible

tectonic style and structural analysis of the puebla de guzman antiform iberian pyrite belt south portuguese zone sw spain

fault orientations in extensional and conjugate strike slip environments and their implications seismically active conjugate strike slip faults in california and japan typically have mutually orthogonal right and left lateral fault planes normal fault dips at earthquake nucleation depths are concentrated between 40 and 50 the observed orientations and their strong clustering are surprising because conventional faulting theory suggests fault initiation with conjugate 60 and 120 intersecting planes and 60 normal fault dip or fault reactivation with a broad range of permitted orientations the observations place new constraints on the mechanics of fault initiation rotation and evolutionary development we speculate that the data could be explained by fault rotation into the observed orientations and deactivation for greater rotation or by formation of localized shear zones beneath the brittle ductile transition in earth9s crust initiation as weak frictional faults seems unlikely

co seismic displacements of the 1994 northridge california earthquake the 17 january 1994 northridge california earthquake significantly deformed the earth s crust in the epicentral region displacements of 66 survey stations determined from global positioning system gps observations collected before and after the earthquake show that individual stations were uplifted by up to 417 5 mm and displaced horizontally by up to 216 3 mm using these displacements we estimate parameters of a uniform slip model fault geometry and slip are estimated independent of seismological information using monte carlo optimization techniques that minimize the model residuals the plane that best fits the geodetic data lies 1 to 2 km above the plane indicated by aftershock seismicity modeling for distributed slip on a coplanar yet larger model fault indicates that a high slip patch occurred up dip and northwest of the mainshock hypocenter and that less than 1 m of slip occurred in the uppermost 5 km of the crust this finding is consistent with the lack of clear surface rupture and with the notion that the intersection with the fault that ruptured in 1971 formed the up dip terminus of slip in the northridge earthquake displacements predicted by either of these simple models explain most of the variance in the data within 50 km of the epicenter on average however the scatter of the residuals is twice the data uncertainties and in some areas there is significant systematic misfit to either model the co seismic contributions of aftershocks are insufficient to explain this mismatch indicating that the source geometry is more complicated than a single rectangular plane

symmetry of pebble deformation involving solution pits and slip lineations in the northern alpine molasse basin abstract deformation features on pebbles of the alpine molasse basin are most clearly developed in carbonate components ductile distortion is small most of the pebbles moved against each other to produce solution pits and slip lineations on the pebble surfaces the complete lineation field has a triaxial geometry from a compressional axis of divergence with maximum solution fields of diverging lineations extend to meet at a plane of convergence their ends bend away from an intermediate axis towards an extensional axis of convergence the strain symmetry is pure shear for orthogonal lineation field axes uniaxial compression and extension representing special cases the angle between the divergent and the convergent axes decreases from 90 to 0 with the transition from pure to simple shear for molasse pebbles angles between 90 and 60 were usually observed regional compression developed perpendicular to the alpine structures and parallel to bedding with increasing deviations near the alpine border zones are recorded of vertical and horizontal extension and of compression perpendicular to bedding and horizontal extension perpendicular to the rhinegraben existing at the northern border of the molasse basin

breather type oscillations of the global tectonic shear stress fields abstract in this paper two observations of the breather type oscillating tectonic shear stress field in the earth s crust are described the normalized tectonic shear stress from the regional earthquake focal mechanisms is calculated by using the modified moment tensor summation method the results show that the observed time development of the normalized tectonic shear stress can be modelled as a breather which is a spatially localized time periodic oscillatory solution of the sine gordon equation it represents the stress and strain fields which periodically oscillate in time and decay in space as the distance from the center increases two case studies are described the first was observed during the years 2017 2019 in south america while the second was observed during the years 1977 1979 south of japan the first example is an almost ideal breather the second example contains some natural noise but can still be modelled as a breather

potentially active faults in the rapidly eroding landscape adjacent to the alpine fault central southern alps new zealand 1 potentially active faults are exposed in the steep glaciated topography of the central southern alps new zealand immediately adjacent to the alpine fault plate boundary four major faults exposed along the flanks of three of the highest mountain ranges strike 10 23 km potentially 40 km nne oblique to the alpine fault dipping 57 12 nw in the opposite direction youngest discernable motions were reverse dip slip accommodating both margin perpendicular shortening and dextral margin parallel components of plate motion kinematic analysis yields a compression axis 295 10 9 trend or plunge equivalent to the contemporary shortening determined from seismological and geodetic studies suggesting the faults may be active although definitive evidence for recent movement or single event displacements is lacking there are 106 other potentially active faults mapped in central southern alps with strike lengths 4 73 km earthquake parameters were assigned from fault trace lengths and historical earthquake statistics indicating potential for mw 5 5 7 4 earthquakes at recurrence intervals of 1000 10 000 years such long recurrence intervals are consistent with the faults having little surface expression with rapid erosion of these seismically agitated mountains erasing any evidence of surface rupture during periods between earthquakes the central southern alps faults exemplify the difficulty in fully deciphering long term e g holocene or quaternary records of seismicity in tectonically active regions with rapidly evolving landscapes although there may be little evidence of surface ruptures remaining in the landscape the faults are still an important potential source of earthquakes and seismic hazard

stress change before and after the 2011 m9 tohoku oki earthquake abstract megathrust systems hold important clues for our understanding of long and short term plate boundary dynamics and the 2011 m9 tohoku oki earthquake provides a data rich case in point here we show that the f net moment tensor catalog indicates systematic changes in crustal stress in the years leading up to the m9 due to the co seismic effect and for the last few years due to viscous relaxation we explore the match between imaged stress change and the perturbations that are expected from 3 d mechanical models of the visco elastic relaxation and afterslip effects of the m9 while these models were constructed based on geodetic and structural seismology constraints alone they match many characteristics of the seismicity inferred stress change this provides additional confidence in the modeling approach and new clues for our understanding of plate boundary dynamics for the japan trench the success of deterministic approaches for exploring crustal stress change also implies that joint inversions using stress from focal mechanisms and geodetic constraints may be feasible such future efforts should provide key insights into time dependent seismic hazard including earthquake triggering scenarios

deep injection and closely monitored induced seismicity at paradox valley colorado the u s bureau of reclamation s paradox valley unit pvu extracts aquifer brine from nine shallow wells along the dolores river paradox valley in southwestern colorado and after treating high pressure injects the brine 4 3 4 8 km below the surface pvu injects at rates between 800 and 1300 l min since 1991 pvu has emplaced over 4 106 m3 of fluid and induced more than 4000 surface recorded seismic events the events are recorded on the local 15 station paradox valley seismic network the induced seismicity at paradox separates into two distinct source zones a principle zone 95 of the events asymmetrically surrounding the injection well to a maximum radial distance of 3 km and a secondary ellipsoidal zone 2 5 km long and centered 8 km northwest of the injection well the expansion of these zones has stabilized since mid 1999 about three years after the onset of continuous injection within the principal zone hypocenters align in distinct linear patterns showing at depth stratigraphy and the local wray mesa fracture and fault system the primary faults of the wray mesa system are aseismic striking subparallel to the inferred maximum principal stress direction with one or more faults probably acting as fluid conduits to the secondary seismic zone individual seismic events in both zones do not discernibly correlate with short term injection parameters however a 0 5 km2 region immediately northwest of the injection well responds to long term large scale changes in injection rate and the surpassing of a threshold injection pressure focal mechanisms of the induced events are consistent with simple double couple strike slip moments and subhorizontal extension to the northeast in addition the fault planes are consistent with principal stress directions determined from borehole breakouts more than 99 9 of the pvu seismicity is below human detection m 2 5 however approximately 15 events have been felt locally with the largest being a magnitude m 4 3 because of the m 4 3 and two earlier felt m 3 5 events and injection economics pvu changed injection strategies three times since 1996 these changes reduced seismicity from 1100 events year to as low as 60 events year

coseismic stress changes induced by the 1989 loma prieta california earthquake earthquake focal mechanisms from before and after the 1989 loma prieta california earthquake are used to infer the coseismic stress change before the main shock most earthquakes correspond to right lateral slip on planes sub parallel to the san andreas fault and imply a generally n s most compressional stress axis and a vertical intermediate stress axis aftershocks within the main shock rupture zone however display almost every style and orientation of faulting implying an extremely heterogeneous stress field this suggests that the main shock relieved most if not all of the shear stress acting on its fault plane aftershocks that lie on the perimeter of the rupture agree with spatially uniform stress states but only when considered in three groups north south and above the main shock rupture area in each of these areas the stress state may reflect stress transfer by the main shock

an improved method for determining the regional stress tensor using earthquake focal mechanism data application to the san fernando earthquake sequence the orientations of fault planes and slip directions indicated by a population of earthquake focal mechanisms can be used to determine best fit regional principal stress directions and r 2 1 3 1 a measure of relative stress magnitudes under the assumption of uniform stress in the source region this analysis allows for the possibility that failure occurs on preexisting zones of weakness of any orientation in the inversion we perform a grid search of stress models to find the one which requires the smallest total rotation of all the fault planes that is needed to match the observed and predicted slip directions the method allows for errors in orientations of both the fault planes and slip directions we have an objective means for identifying the more likely of the two possible fault planes from each focal mechanism relative to a given stress model thus we do not face the problem of ambiguity of nodal planes which plagues other analyses of this kind by using a grid search of stress models rather than a linearization scheme we are able to perform a realistic error analysis and thus establish confidence limits for the preferred regional stresses the method can be used to investigate possible stress inhomogeneities during earthquake sequences by analyzing subsets of the data population the technique has been applied to 76 events from the san fernando earthquake sequence for which we have found best fit stresses plunge and azimuth 1 7 187 2 27 281 3 62 84 and r 0 65 the average misfit between this stress model and all the data is about 8 and all but eight of the aftershocks have misfits of less than 20 these values are considerably less than the uncertainty of the focal mechanism determinations therefore significant stress inhomogeneities are not required by the data our analysis does not support the suggestion of a change in stresses during the aftershock sequence as proposed by others on the basis of an apparent change in focal mechanisms

kinematics of postseismic relaxation from aftershock focal mechanisms of the 1994 northridge california earthquake geodetic observations of surface deformation associated with the 1994 northridge southern california earthquake generally are reproduced by simple models of a large scale elastic dislocation on a blind or buried thrust fault the smaller scale aftershocks of the northridge earthquake are distributed throughout much of the volume of crust that appears to have deformed elastically during the mainshock these aftershocks averaged over volumes that are large relative to their rupture radii reflect a distributed permanent deformation that is accommodated by local brittle fracture we use a micropolar continuum model to invert the aftershocks in such volumes for the average incremental strain and we compare that deformation both with the elastic strain from the dislocation model of the mainshock and with geodetically measured strain aftershock deformation that occurred at depths below about 6 km and which is associated with the primary rupture zone is consistent with slow continuation of the southwest side up reverse slip on the blind northridge thrust fault in contrast aftershock deformation from the upper 5 7 km of the hanging wall block directly above the thrust fault can be characterized by horizontal ne sw shortening and horizontal nw se i e fault parallel extension this pattern of deformation is similar to that associated with the mainshock as observed geodetically and as calculated from the elastic dislocation model we interpret that the aftershock activity in the hanging wall represents the quasi ductile accommodation by brittle deformation mechanisms of a permanent strain distributed through the hanging wall block the aftershocks along the mainshock rupture zone are interpreted as resulting from either 1 the time dependent release along a weakened fault zone of part of the remaining accumulated elastic strain in the upper crust or 2 the continued slip in the weakened fault zone driven by the deformation of a ductile elastic lower crustal layer that relaxes under the stress transferred by the coseismic loss of cohesion in the upper crust in either case the aftershock activity suggests that the crust undergoes quasi ductile flow as a brittle elastic material and is not a strictly elastic material

transverse fold evolution in the external sierra southern pyrenees spain fault slip data are used to reconstruct varying tectonic regimes associated with transverse fold development along the eastern and southern margins of the jaca basin southern pyrenees spain the spanish pyrenean foreland consists of thrust sheets and leading edge decollement folds which developed within piggyback basins guara formation limestones on the margins of the jaca basin were deposited synchronously with deformation and are exposed in the external sierra within the transverse folds principal shortening axes determined from p and t dihedra plots of fault slip data show a shift from steep shortening in stratigraphically older beds to nne ssw horizontal shortening in younger beds older strata are characterized by extensional faults interpreted to result from halotectonic salt tectonics deformation whereas younger strata are characterized by contraction and strike slip faults interpreted to result from thrust sheet emplacement the interpretation of the timing for the shortening axes in the younger strata is supported by the observation that these axes are parallel to shortening axes determined from finite strain analysis calcite twins and regional thrusting directions determined from fault related folds and slickenlines this study shows that fault population analysis in syntectonic strata provides an opportunity to constrain kinematic evolution during orogeny

tectonic evolution of the intra uplift vigodi gugriana khirasra netra fault system in the seismically active kachchh rift basin india implications for the western continental margin of the indian plate abstract the e w striking kachchh rift basin krb at the western continental margin of indian plate is located in the northern part of gujarat state india krb has undergone polyphase deformation owing to changing stress field since late triassic we establish the kinematic framework along the nw striking intra uplift vigodi gugriana khirasra netra fault system vgknfs located at the western part of the krb the vgknfs consists of 0 25 50 km long sub parallel striated reactivated dip slip faults a total of 1150 fault slip data consisting of fault planes and striations attitude were recorded from 66 sites including a single site with systematic joints slip sense of faults was determined by documenting kinematic indicators paleostress analysis was carried out using win tensor t tecto faultkin and sg2ps to compare and validate the results the chi square statistical analysis was undertaken to evaluate how relevant are paleostress analysis results to the present day compressional stress field geophysical investigations were conducted at selected sites using ground penetrating radar gpr to understand the shallow subsurface geometry and trace the continuity of faults buried below patchy alluvial cover 15 17 m long 2d gpr cross sections were recorded across faults using monostatic antenna of 200 mhz frequency two major deformation events d1 and d2 are determined in the present study the extension event d1 shows w and nw nnw extension during late triassic to late cretaceous it occurred during the rift phase of krb in response of the break up of gondwanaland the latest event d2 shows nne ne compression from late cretaceous up to the present it is interpreted to have developed during post rift inversion phase induced by collision of the indian plate with the eurasian plate at 55 ma

discrimination of fault planes from auxiliary planes based on simultaneous determination of stress tensor and a large number of fault plane solutions it is well known that there is a large difference in focal mechanism solutions of events even if they occur within a certain small area considering earthquake generating stress to be uniform in a studied area we developed a new method for simultaneously determining the stress tensor and the orientation of fault planes for many events by the use of polarity data of p waves first the number of inconsistent stations is calculated for various values of three parameters in the focal mechanism solution with intervals of 10 this calculation is made for all the events used then four parameters defining the stress tensor are determined by a grid search using the data calculated above with the assumption that the slip direction in the fault plane should be parallel to the direction where the shear stress on the plane becomes maximum a numerical test is made by applying the present method to an artificial data set composed of 25 events with 25 25 readings it is found that a stable solution of the stress tensor is determined by the inversion and about 60 of fault planes are distinguished from auxiliary planes there are no events whose auxiliary planes are incorrectly determined as fault planes this method is used to estimate the earthquake generating stress in the aftershock area of the 1984 western nagano prefecture earthquake central japan the results obtained show that the maximum principal stress is horizontal in the direction of n80 w s80 e there are strike slip events having fault planes almost perpendicular to the fault plane of the main shock

final stages of the variscan orogeny at the southern iberian massif lateral extrusion and rotation of continental blocks 1 the southern part of the iberian massif contains one of the sutures of the european variscan belt several systems of faults and dikes appear as a result of a period of brittle deformation during the late stages of the variscan tectonic evolution of this zone a detailed analysis of these structures has been carried out in this work four successive deformation phases have been identified a first strike slip normal faulting stage a transcurrent stage a second strike slip normal faulting stage and finally a thrusting stage the age of these phases vary between around 310 ma and less than 270 ma the computed trajectories of the deformation axes show a progressive anticlockwise rotation of around 90 these data together with the results of previous geological and geophysical studies of this zone and of the variscan belt as a whole lead us to propose a model of tectonic evolution for the last stages of the variscan collision comparison with modern examples of collisional belts and with the results of analog experiments suggests that a promontory of the continental lithosphere of the downgoing plate indented against the active continental margin of the upper plate the indenter suffered an intense deformation in accordance with the predictions of some recent analog models simulating the indentation of a four layer continental lithosphere the variscan and late variscan brittle deformation episodes represent the waning stages of the variscan collision and not an independent tectonic event

kinematic data for the coast range fault and implications for exhumation of the franciscan subduction complex kinematic data from two segments of the coast range fault are used to test the hypothesis that the franciscan subduction complex was exhumed by extensional faulting the data reveal a consistent geometry for the principal directions of brittle strain the maximum extension direction has an east west orientation and lies subperpendicular to the present attitude of the coast range fault which dips steeply to the east the maximum shortening direction is subvertical and lies at a low angle to the present down dip direction of the fault given that the coast range fault probably formed with a gentle dip our results indicate subhorizontal crustal shortening in a northeast direction which is at variance with interpretations that invoke regional scale extension between the franciscan subduction complex and the overlying coast range ophiolite and great valley group we favor a model involving out of sequence thrust faults such a model is consistent with fault parallel contraction and the pronounced discontinuity in metamorphic grade across the coast range fault as well as substantial thinning of the coast range ophiolite this interpretation implies that erosion not extensional faulting was the major process that exhumed the franciscan subduction wedge during the late cretaceous

finite strain and rotation from fault slip data abstract the moment tensor summation mts characterizes the infinitesimal strain of a region due to fault rupture during an earthquake tectonic strain on a much longer time scale can be found by applying the mts to fault slip data which represent cumulative fault displacement however the traditional mts assumes infinitesimal strain which may not be appropriate for cumulative displacement on faults therefore it is necessary to examine whether a finite strain treatment is more appropriate we develop a method to find finite strain from fault slip data fsfs and use it to illuminate two general faulting problems finite strain and block rotation first the fsfs method is compared to the mts using both synthetic and real fault data strain due to faults must be high 60 elongation before the infinitesimal strain approximation produces errors greater than the variation of typical field data however some regions do exhibit very high fault strains and require finite strain analysis second the fsfs method is used to solve for rotation in regions cut by domino style faults a common model for high fault strains and rotation given an arbitrary rigid boundary the method can be used to relate fault strain and block rotation for example a paleomagnetic rotation of 40 requires fault strain with a minimum finite elongation of 41

kinematics of neogene to recent upper crustal deformation in the southern central andes 23 28 s inferred from fault slip analysis evidence for gravitational spreading of the puna plateau abstract elucidating the tectono morphologic evolution of the central andes is important for understanding the mechanical behaviour of non collisional orogens at convergent plate boundaries fault kinematic data from the southern central andes are generally interpreted in terms of changes in plate boundary kinematics or vertical axis rotation associated with the formation of the andean orocline however none of these hypotheses accounts adequately for neogene to recent horizontal extension and vertical shortening of upper crust documented from the puna plateau and the adjacent eastern cordillera based on new and compiled fault kinematic data in total 4746 brittle faults at 317 stations we propose that strain axis configurations in the southern central andes are controlled by 1 local deformation kinematics 2 the far field deformation caused either by the orogen normal shortening component of plate convergence or by removal of lithospheric mantle and 3 differences in lithospheric thickness and respective surface elevation i e gravitational potential energy specifically the puna plateau and eastern cordillera have been undergoing horizontal shortening and gravitational spreading of the upper crust whereas the topographically lower pampean ranges continue to undergo horizontal shortening only although less apparent in the fault kinematic data than the e w and nw se extension orogen parallel extension is inherent to the puna plateau and eastern cordillera and compensates likely for overall wnw ese shortening and enhanced surface elevation the importance of orogen parallel extension in the deformation kinematics of topographically elevated parts of the southern central andes is underscored by the strike slip components on prominent reverse and thrust faults the data supports geodynamic interpretations in which the evolution of topography and lithospheric thickness influence significantly changes in upper crustal kinematics of the southern central andes

a constitutive law for rate of earthquake production and its application to earthquake clustering seismicity is modeled as a sequence of earthquake nucleation events in which the distribution of initial conditions over the population of nucleation sources and stress ing history control the timing of earthquakes the model is implemented using solutions for nucleation of unstable fault slip on faults with experimentally derived rate and state dependent fault properties this yields a general state variable constitutive formulation for rate of earthquake production resulting from an applied stressing history to illustrate and test the model some characteristics of seismicity following a stress step have been explored it is proposed that various features of earthquake clustering arise from sensi tivity of nucleation times to the stress changes induced by prior earthquakes the model gives the characteristic omori aftershock decay law and interprets aftershock parameters in terms of stress change and stressing rate earthquake data appear to support a model prediction that aftershock duration defined as the time for rates to return to the back ground seismicity rate is proportional to mainshock recurrence time observed spatial and temporal clustering of earthquake pairs arises as a consequence of the spatial depen dence of stress changes of the first event of the pair and stress sensitive time dependent nucleation applications of the constitutive formulation are not restricted to the simple stress step models investigated here it may be applied to stressing histories of arbitrary complexity the apparent success at modeling clustering phenomena suggests the possibil ity of using the formulation to estimate short to intermediate term earthquake probabil ities following occurrence of other earthquakes and for inversion of temporal variations of earthquake rates for changes in driving stress

evidence for non plane strain flattening along the moine thrust loch srath nan aisinnin north west scotland we report quartz c axis patterns grain shape fabrics and microstructures for 11 mylonitic quartzites and quartz phyllosilicate schists from a transect across the moine thrust at loch srath nan aisinnin north west scotland in the footwall samples collected more than 42 m normal distance from the thrust surface quartz c axis textures indicate a general flattening strain i e 0 k 1 samples within 19 m normal distance of the thrust are completely recrystallized and exhibit asymmetric c axis patterns recrystallized hanging wall fault rocks exhibit random c axis patterns on the scale of a standard thin section relict footwall grains provide the closest approximation of finite strain they have octahedral shear strains s between 1 10 and 1 47 and exhibit general flattening k values 0 0524 0 659 the long axis of the mean relict grain shape trends parallel to the regional transport direction and plunges gently to the ese in contrast recrystallized footwall grains have a mean grain shape with the longest axis oriented nearly perpendicular to the transport direction furthermore these samples have grain shape k value ranges from 0 157 to 0 295 recrystallized hanging wall grain shapes exhibit the lowest octahedral shear strains s 0 532 0 733 and largest mean k values 0 351 0 961 of this sample set the long axes of the mean recrystallized hanging wall grain shapes are parallel to transport similar to that of relict footwall grains unrecrystallized quartz overgrowths about opaque mineral grains suggest concurrent elongation in all directions within the mylonitic foliation and support the inference of general flattening deformation the mylonitic foliation and penetrative lineation are consistent with a wnw shearing direction however both were folded during later deformation increments recrystallized grains in footwall quartzites suggest a 305 320 azimuth for the shearing direction the best fit axis of the poles to the foliation is 18 145 close to the mean trend plunge of mesoscopic fold hinges at this site 18 151 both suggest a nnw azimuth for the shearing direction thus structural microstructural and fabric indicators suggest a change in the azimuth of the shearing direction from 286 to 331

carbonate platform depositional sequences upper cretaceous south central pyrenees spain abstract the upper cretaceous cenomanian maastrichtian of the south central pyrenees shows five carbonate platform sequences where the major parameters are tectonism relative sea level fluctuations and inherited depositional profile depositional geometries and basin analysis permit an understanding of the depositional history five depositional sequences have been recognized 1 the santa fe sequence middle upper cenomanian a ramp to a skeletal rimmed shelf with an escarpment bypass margin the lower boundary is an angular unconformity and the upper one records a sea level drop the platform location of the margin was determined by a listric normal fault 2 an abrupt sea level rise drowned the former platform the congost sequence turonian lower coniacian a distally steepened ramp with erosional distal deep slope the depositional model was largely controlled by pre existing basin morphology cessation of platform development was due to a relative sea level drop 3 the sant corneli sequence upper coniacian lower santonian a mixed terrigenous skeletal homoclinal ramp with upright margin deep slope and dysaerobic basin the slope results from the backstepping by 24 km of the previous margin and gentle basin tilting the platform margin remained more or less at the same position and relief between platform and slope increased indicating continuous relative sea level rise the upper boundary is an angular unconformity at the platform margin produced by an abrupt sea level rise and platform drowning and by listric normal faulting 4 the vallcarga sequence upper santonian campanian a distal steepened skeletal homoclinal ramp erosional escarpment and turbidite basin which corresponds to the mesozoic maximum marine expansion a listric normal fault created two depositional areas a more or less flat footwall block with a north northwest prograding carbonate ramp

theory of slickenline patterns based on the velocity gradient tensor and microrotation abstract brittle fault zones commonly are characterized by a multitude of lineated shear planes having a wide distribution of orientations in our model we assume the faulted rock comprises an aggregate of rigid blocks whose surfaces are the shear planes we define two independent scales of motion to distinguish the local rigid rotation of the blocks with their shear planes the micromotion from the average deformation of the material on a macroscopic scale the macromotion the macromotion is defined by the macrovelocity gradient tensor which is separated into symmetric and antisymmetric parts the deformation rate and the macrospin tensors respectively the micromotion is defined by a microspin tensor on any shear plane slickenlines form parallel to the direction of the maximum rate of shear which we assume is determined by the direction of the maximum component of the macrovelocity gradient tensor tangent to the shear plane and by a component of the microspin in the shear plane for a restricted kinematic model patterns of slickenline orientations are defined on a uniform distribution of shear plane orientations by the values of d and w d is a ratio of differences in the principal values of the deformation rate tensor and w is a ratio of the net spin to the maximum rate of macroshear we distinguish between instantaneous slickenline patterns and finite deformation patterns the two are different if the shear planes rotate relative to the principal deformation rate axes in which case finite deformation slickenlines form curved or crossing lineations if w 0 the instantaneous slickenline patterns have orthorhombic symmetry 0 d d 1 or 0 if w 0 the instantaneous slickenline patterns have monoclinic symmetry for pure shear in an isotropic body instantaneous slickenline patterns have orthorhombic symmetry w 0 d 0 5 whereas for pure shear accommodated by shear on a planar anisotropy w 1 d 0 5 the pattern is monoclinic for simple shear with the rigid rotation of local shear planes defined by the shear induced spin w 0 d 0 5 the instantaneous slickenline pattern is orthorhombic but the finite deformation pattern is monoclinic for simple shear with no shear plane rotation w 1 d 0 5 the instantaneous pattern is monoclinic special cases of our hypothesis are equivalent to the hypothesis that slickenlines are parallel to the direction of maximum resolved shear stress e g angelier 1979 1984 the slickenline patterns predicted for this case are always of orthorhombic or higher symmetry and are equivalent to our instantaneous patterns for which w 0 and to our finite deformation patterns for which in addition there is no microspin