block models of crustal motion in southern california constrained by gps measurements 1 we estimate slip rates on major active faults in southern california using a block model constrained by global positioning system measurements of interseismic deformation the block model includes the effects of block rotation and elastic strain accumulation consistent with a simple model of the earthquake cycle our estimates of the right lateral strike slip rate on the san andreas fault vary by at least a factor of 5 from a high of 35 9 0 5 mm yr in the carrizo plain to a low of 5 1 1 5 mm yr through the san bernadino segment shortening across the puente hills thrust and left lateral slip on the raymond hill fault are consistent with both thickening and escape tectonics in the los angeles basin discrepancies between geodetic and geologic slip rate estimates along the san andreas and san jacinto faults as well as in the eastern california shear zone may be explained by a temporal change in fault system behavior we find no substantial evidence for long term postseismic relaxation and infer that the viscosity of the lower crust upper mantle may be relatively high 1019 pa s

spatial and temporal deformation along the northern san jacinto fault southern california implications for slip rates the san timoteo badlands is an area of uplift and erosional dissection that has formed as a result of late quaternary uplift along a restraining bend in the san jacinto fault of the san andreas fault system in southern california this bend currently is located in a region where late quaternary deposits and associated surfaces have formed in lower san timoteo canyon we have used morphometric analysis of these surfaces in conjunction with computer modeling of deformational patterns along the san jacinto fault to reconstruct spatial and temporal variations in uplift along the bend morphometric techniques used include envelope subenvelope map ping a gradient length index along channels and denudation values age control is determined using a combination of thermoluminescence tl and near infrared op tical simulation luminescence dating irosl and correlation of soil development indices these approaches are combined with an elastic half space model used to determine the deformation associated with the fault bend the region of modeled uplift has a similar distribution as that determined by morphometric techniques luminescence dates and soil correlation age estimates generally agree based on soil development surfaces within the study area were stabilized at approximately 300 700 ka for q3 43 67 ka for q2 and 27 5 67 ka for q1 luminescence ages both tl and irosl for the formation of the younger two surfaces are 58 to 94 ka for q2 and 37 to 62 ka for q1 ages reported to 1r uncertainty periods of uplift were determined for the surfaces in the study area resulting in approximate uplift rates of 0 34 to 0 84 m ka for the past 100 ka and 0 13 to 1 00 m ka for the past 66 ka comparison of these rates of uplift to those generated by the model support a higher rate of lateral slip along the san jacinto fault than commonly assumed greater than 20 mm yr as compared to 8 12 mm yr commonly cited this higher slip rate supports the proposal that a greater amount of slip has transferred from the san andreas fault to the san jacinto fault than generally held the san jacinto fault may have accommodated a significant portion of the plate boundary slip during the past 100 ka

present day strain accumulation and slip rates associated with southern san andreas and eastern california shear zone faults 1 we present the first results from a dense network of 36 campaign and 46 continuous gps stations located in the eastern transverse ranges province etr a transition zone between the southernmost san andreas fault ssaf and eastern california shear zone ecsz we analyzed the campaign data together with available data from continuous gps stations for the period 1994 2009 we used the gps velocity estimates to constrain elastic block models to investigate fault loading rates representing four hypotheses characterized by different fault block geometries fault block scenarios include blocks bounded by the east striking left lateral pinto mountain blue cut and chiriaco faults of the etr blocks bounded by a right lateral north northwest striking structure the landers mojave earthquake line that cuts obliquely across the etr and mapped mojave desert faults and combinations of these end member hypotheses each model implies significantly different active fault geometries block rotation rates and slip rates for etr and ecsz structures all models suggest that ssaf slip rate varies appreciably along strike generally consistent with rates derived from tectonic geomorphology and paleoseismology with a maximum of 23 mm yr right lateral along the southernmost coachella valley strand decreasing systematically to 10 mm yr right lateral through the san gorgonio pass region slip rate estimates for the san jacinto fault are 12 mm yr for all models tested all four models fit the data equally well in a statistical sense qualitative comparison among models and consideration of geologic slip rates and other independent data reveals strengths and weaknesses of each model

late quaternary slip rates for the southern elsinore fault in the coyote mountains southern california from analysis of alluvial fan landforms and clast provenance soils and u series ages of pedogenic carbonate abstract offset alluvial fans along the elsinore fault in the south central coyote mountains were studied to resolve an average late quaternary slip rate for this major western strand of the san andreas fault system in southern california alluvial fans and their offsets were mapped using high resolution dems combined with field observations of fan surface morphology and the character of the soils developed in each fan remnant clast assemblage data was used to determine the source of each alluvial fan upstream of the fault and u series dating of pedogenic carbonate was used to estimate minimum ages of the alluvial fan surfaces forty u th dates on pedogenic carbonate confirm the utility of the technique for dating late pleistocene alluvium in arid regions and suggest that age variation among late pleistocene fans grouped on the basis of soils and geomorphic criteria may be significant based on these data the southernmost segment of the elsinore fault has sustained a slip rate of 2 4 0 4 mm y for the past 60 70 ka and probably for the past 150 ka because displacement in the most recent surface rupture increases northwest of our slip rate sites this rate is likely a minimum for the southern elsinore fault with the actual rate more likely close to 3 mm y in the central part of the range these new data confirm that slip gradients along individual fault segments must be considered when estimating pre holocene slip rates for seismic hazard estimates these new results show that the southern elsinore fault accounts for about 6 of the total relative motion between north america and the pacific lithospheric plates in southernmost california assessment of previous estimates of slip in the most recent event suggests earthquakes of about mw 6 8 and when combined with the slip rate data a recurrence of such events about every thousand years

seismicity normal faulting and the geomorphological development of the gulf of corinth greece the corinth earthquakes of february and march 1981 three major destructive earthquakes of m s 6 7 6 4 6 4 occurred in the eastern part of the gulf of corinth in february and march 1981 associated normal faulting was observed on both the north and the south sides of the gulf examination of teleseismic local seismic surface faulting and geomorpbological data suggests that the first and second of these shocks activated major north dipping normal faults these faults control the topography and bathymetry and are related to the recent uplift and subsidence of the coastline it is probable that the first earthquake occurred on a faultwhich outcrops underwater and the second on a fault which is visible on land it appears that the third shock activated an antithetic normal fault dipping southwards on the north side of the gulf and that the overall structure of the gulf of corinth graben is asymmetric the northern antithetic fault clearly demonstrates the geomorphological changes associated with developing young normal faulting in addition we suggest that observations of recent coastline movement provide a powerful tool for identifying major active fault systems and predicting their historical role in the paleogeography of an area

interseismic strain accumulation and the earthquake potential on the southern san andreas fault system the southern section of the san andreas fault is the only part of the fault that hasn t ruptured in historic times for this reason it is believed to pose the largest seismic risk in california although whether tectonic stress is actually accumulating there is a topic of heated debate using data from radar interferometry satellites yuri fialko has produced a detailed map of surface deformation in the area that shows that elastic stress is accumulating at a fairly high rate during the past 300 years a displacement of 6 to 9 metres has built up this suggests that the southern san andreas fault is nearing the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle and that increased seismic activity of some kind can be expected the san andreas fault in california is a mature continental transform fault that accommodates a significant fraction of motion between the north american and pacific plates the two most recent great earthquakes on this fault ruptured its northern and central sections in 1906 and 1857 respectively the southern section of the fault however has not produced a great earthquake in historic times for at least 250 years assuming the average slip rate of a few centimetres per year typical of the rest of the san andreas fault the minimum amount of slip deficit accrued on the southern section is of the order of 7 10 metres comparable to the maximum co seismic offset ever documented on the fault1 2 here i present high resolution measurements of interseismic deformation across the southern san andreas fault system using a well populated catalogue of space borne synthetic aperture radar data the data reveal a nearly equal partitioning of deformation between the southern san andreas and san jacinto faults with a pronounced asymmetry in strain accumulation with respect to the geologically mapped fault traces the observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the san andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle

how fault evolution changes strain partitioning and fault slip rates in southern california results from geodynamic modeling in southern california the pacific north america relative plate motion is accommodated by the complex southern san andreas fault system that includes many young faults 2 ma the initiation of these young faults and their impact on strain partitioning and fault slip rates are important for understanding the evolution of this plate boundary zone and assessing earthquake hazard in southern california using a three dimensional viscoelasto plastic finite element model we have investigated how this plate boundary fault system has evolved to accommodate the relative plate motion in southern california our results show that when the plate boundary faults are not optimally configured to accommodate the relative plate motion strain is localized in places where new faults would initiate to improve the mechanical efficiency of the fault system in particular the eastern california shear zone the san jacinto fault the elsinore fault and the offshore dextral faults all developed in places of highly localized strain these younger faults compensate for the reduced fault slip on the san andreas fault proper because of the big bend a major restraining bend the evolution of the fault system changes the apportionment of fault slip rates over time which may explain some of the slip rate discrepancy between geological and geodetic measurements in southern california for the present fault configuration our model predicts localized strain in western transverse ranges and along the dextral faults across the mojave desert where numerous damaging earthquakes occurred in recent years

seismicity of the aegean and surrounding area abstract seismicity parameters based on instrumental and historical data are given for 36 seismic sources of shallow earthquakes and for 6 seismic sources of intermediate depth earthquakes in the aegean and surrounding area 34 n 43 n 18 e 30 e these parameters are of two categories parameters of the first category are useful for seismic hazard evaluation a and b values of the frequency magnitude relation maximum earthquake magnitude number of shocks larger than certain magnitude per year while parameters of the second category are proper for describing the spatial distribution of seismicity mean return period most probable magnitude in a certain time period moment rate shallow seismicity is highest along the convex side of the hellenic arc but close to the coast ionian islands south peloponnesus south of crete south of karpathos and rhodos in central greece patraikos corinthiakos evoikos gulfs thessalia and along a seismic belt which includes the northwestern anatolia fault zone the northernmost part of the aegean sea and the serbomacedonia zone the intermediate depth seismic activity is distributed in two parts of the benioff zone which dips from the convex side eastern mediterranean to the concave side aegean sea of the hellenic arc the one part shows a low dip angle and includes earthquakes with focal depths between 70 km and 100 km this part has a high seismicity earthquake magnitudes up to 8 0 and is situated below the inner slope of the sedimentary part of the hellenic arc eastern peloponnesus north of crete rhodos based on the fact that this part of the benioff zone is a continuation of the seismic zone of shallow earthquakes along the hellenic arc and that both zones have the same seismicity it is concluded that they constitute a continuous seismic belt on which coupling occurs between the subducted eastern mediterranean lithosphere and the overthrusted aegean lithosphere the other inner part of the benioff zone shows low seismicity maximum earthquake magnitude up to 7 1 with earthquakes of focal depths between 100 km and 180 km it dips at a mean angle of 38 below the volcanic arc of the southern aegean sea and is the result of the subduction of the front part of the eastern mediterranean lithosphere without coupling with the aegean lithosphere

gps measurements of crustal deformation associated with the 22 april 1991 valle de la estrella costa rica earthquake we present analysis results for global positioning system gps measurements made at sites in costa rica during two campaigns in february and july 1991 gps solutions for 5 sites limon liberia bratsi etcg and vueltas reveal significant horizontal and vertical displacements relative to their february positions horizontal displacements relative to liberia measured 244 7 0 8 89 2 0 9 12 4 1 3 and 1 9 0 9 cm at limon bratsi vueltas and etcg respectively vertical displacements relative to liberia measured 163 2 1 15 3 3 0 10 5 4 4 and 0 6 2 1 cm at limon bratsi vueltas and etcg respectively we find differences in the gps derived vertical and horizontal displacements compared to other types of geodetic measurements of uplift in the coastal region and their associated models to address these differences we compute a dislocation model which fits the gps measured displacements a simple uniform planar slip model can not reconcile the differences between the coastal uplift data or the seismic moment suggesting considerable complexity of the earthquake source

the 1995 kozani grevena northern greece earthquake revisited an improved faulting model from synthetic aperture radar interferometry summary previously geodetic data associated with earthquakes have been widely modelled using coplanar rectangular dislocations in an elastic half space however such models appear inadequate when complex geometries such as variations in strike and dip or multiple fault segments are involved here we revisit the 1995 m s 6 6 kozani grevena earthquake and use synthetic aperture radar sar interferometric measurements tectonic observations and seismological data to constrain a fault model with a realistic geometry we undertake a critical analysis of all available sar data including characterization of atmospheric artefacts these are partially removed and the possibility that such effects are misidentified as secondary faulting is examined three well correlated interferograms provide an accurate and complete description of the ground deformation field associated with the event to take into account the complexity of the fault system activated during the earthquake we construct a 3 d fault model composed of triangular elements that is geometrically more consistent with surface ruptures than those of previous studies using first trial and error and then iterative inversion we explore the ranges of geometric parameters that can explain the data we obtain an average final model and its standard deviation with small slip amplitude at the surface consistent with the field observations and with slip as large as 2 5 m at depth this model is compared with those previously published we conclude that an antithetic fault is not required to explain the sar data

fluid substitution for thinly interbedded sand shale sequences using the mesh method abstractgassmann s fluid substitution model is intended for a monomineralic homogeneous porous rock in which pore pressures induced by applied loads can equilibrate throughout the pore space these assumptions are violated when gassmann s equations are applied to measurements that represent effective medium averages over subresolution layers of alternating sand and shale the conventional procedure for treating this problem has been to first downscale i e estimate the properties of the fine scale sand and shale endmembers from the coarse scale measurements apply gassmann s fluid substitution to the sand only and then backus average back to the original scale this procedure however is very sensitive to errors in estimated sand fraction and shale properties and becomes particularly unstable at small sand fractions a new method for fluid substitution combines rock physics models for dispersed and interbedded sand shale systems which are often approximated with reuss or lower hashin shtrikman inte

a 21 event 4 000 year history of surface ruptures in the anza seismic gap san jacinto fault and implications for long term earthquake production on a major plate boundary fault paleoseismic work completed at hog lake on the san jacinto fault sjf near anza california indicates that at least 21 surface ruptures have occurred in the anza seismic gap over the past 4 000 years the ages of the ruptures are constrained by 111 radiocarbon dates 97 of which fall in stratigraphic order the average recurrence interval for all ruptures for this period is about 185 105 years although some ruptures such as occurred in the april 1918 earthquake caused only minor displacement we rate the expression of each interpreted event in each of the twelve developed field exposures presented in this work by assigning numeric values for the presence of different criteria that indicate rupture to a paleo ground surface weakly expressed ruptures for example the deformation we interpret to be the result of the historical 1918 earthquake received low scores and are interpreted as smaller earthquakes from this analysis we infer that at least fifteen of the identified ruptures are indicative of large earthquakes similar to the penultimate earthquake inferred to be the m w 7 3 22 november 1800 earthquake the adjusted recurrence interval for large earthquakes lengthens to approximately 254 years comparison with the rupture history at the mystic lake paleoseismic site on the claremont strand indicates that it is plausible that several of the large ruptures identified at hog lake could have jumped the hemet step over at mystic lake and continued on the claremont strand or vice versa but most of the event ages do not match between the two sites indicating that most ruptures do not jump the step finally comparison with san andreas fault ruptures both to the north and south of its juncture with the sjf suggest that some northern sjf ruptures identified at mystic lake may correlate with events identified at wrightwood but that these northern ruptures have no match at hog lake and can not indicate rupture of the entire sjf onto the saf

active tectonics of the north and central aegean sea summary in this paper we examine the connection between the westward motion of turkey relative to europe and the extension in and around the aegean sea the principal new data available since the last attempt to synthesize the tectonics of this region by mckenzie 1978 are much improved focal mechanisms of earthquakes constrained by p and sh body wave modelling as well as by first motions these mechanisms show that the faulting in the western part of the aegean region is mostly extensional in nature on normal faults with a nw to wnw strike and with slip vectors directed nnw to nne there is evidence from palaeomagnetism that this western region rotates clockwise relative to stable europe in the central and eastern aegean and in nw turkey distributed right lateral strike slip is more prevalent on faults trending ne to ene and with slip vectors directed ne palaeomagnetic data in this eastern region is more ambiguous but consistent with very small or no rotations in the northern part and possibly anticlockwise rotations relative to europe in the south the strike slip faulting that enters the central aegean from the east appears to end abruptly in the sw against the nw trending normal faults of greece the kinematics of the deformation is controlled by three factors the westward motion of turkey relative to europe the continental collision between nw greece albania and the apulia adriatic platform in the west and the presence of the hellenic subduction zone to the south as the right lateral slip on the north anatolian fault enters the aegean region it splays out becoming distributed on several parallel faults the continental shortening in nw greece and albania does not allow the rotation of the western margin of the region to be rapid enough to accommodate this distributed e w right lateral shear and thus leads to e w shortening in the northern aegean which is compensated by n s extension as the southern aegean margin can move easily over the hellenic subduction zone the dynamics of the system once initiated is self sustaining being driven by the high topography in eastern turkey and by the roll back of the subducted slab beneath the southern aegean the geometry of the deformation resembles the behaviour of a system of broken slats attached to margins that rotate in spite of its extreme simplicity a simple model of such broken slats is able to reproduce quantitatively most of the features of the instantaneous velocity field in the aegean region including the slip vectors and nature of the faulting in the eastern and western parts the senses and approximate rates of rotation the overall extensional velocity across the aegean and the distribution of strain rates as seen in the seismicity and topography or bathymetry and using geodetic measurements as part of this study we re examined the relation between the surface faulting and the focal parameters determined seismologically for the three large 1981 gulf of corinth earthquakes and reassessed the evidence for associating particular earthquakes in the sequence with observed surface faulting an important result is that in one of the events there is a resolvable discrepancy between the slip vector measured at the surface and that determined from the seismic body waves

variable rates of late quaternary strike slip on the san jacinto fault zone southern california three strike slip displacements of strata with known approximate ages have been measured at two locations on the san jacinto fault zone minimum horizontal offset between 5 7 and 8 6 km in no more than 0 73 m y northeast of anza indicates 8 12 mm yr average slip rate since late pleistocene time two measures of more recent displacement are based on trenching studies of stratigraphic offsets on the coyote creek fault in western imperial valley horizontal slip of 1 7 m has been calculated for the youngest sediment of lake cahuilla since its deposition 275 510 yr b p the corresponding slip rate is 2 8 5 0 mm yr right lateral offset of 10 9 m measured on a buried stream channel older than 5060 yr b p but younger than 6820 yr b p yields average slip rates for the intermediate time periods 400 to 6000 yr b p of 1 2 mm yr the average rates of slip for these three time intervals suggest a relatively quiescent period for the san jacinto fault zone from about 4000 b c to about 1600 a d to the extent that long term variations in seismic activity of major strike slip faults elsewhere are known fluctuations in slip rate for the san jacinto fault would not appear to be abnormal if the san jacinto and adjacent segments of the san andreas fault alternately assume dominant roles in absorbing motion between the pacific and american plates perhaps even more recently than 400 yr ago the san andreas fault south of the transverse ranges expressed most of the motion but has since become relatively inactive

uncertainties in slip rate estimates for the mission creek strand of the southern san andreas fault at biskra palms oasis southern california this study focuses on uncertainties in estimates of the geologic slip rate along the mission creek strand of the southern san andreas fault where it offsets an alluvial fan t2 at biskra palms oasis in southern california we provide new estimates of the amount of fault offset of the t2 fan based on trench excavations and new cosmogenic 10be age determinations from the tops of 12 boulders on the fan surface we present three alternative fan offset models a minimum a maximum and a preferred offset of 660 m 980 m and 770 m respectively we assign an age of between 45 and 54 ka to the t2 fan from the 10be data which is significantly older than previously reported but is consistent with both the degree of soil development associated with this surface and with ages from u series geochronology on pedogenic carbonate from t2 described in a companion paper by fletcher et al this volume these new constraints suggest a range of slip rates between 12 and 22 mm yr with a preferred estimate of 14 17 mm yr for the mission creek strand of the southern san andreas fault previous studies suggested that the geologic and geodetic slip rate estimates at biskra palms differed we find however that considerable uncertainty affects both the geologic and geodetic slip rate estimates such that if a real discrepancy between these rates exists for the southern san andreas fault at biskra palms it cannot be demonstrated with available data

influence of fault geometry on the spatial distribution of long term slip with implications for determining representative fault slip rates determining representative slip rates of active faults is essential to seismic hazard assessment and tectonic analysis here we take a two pronged approach to determine how spatially variable slip over many earthquake cycles impacts the sliprate record at potential sites of geologic investigation near releasing stepovers first we use 2d parametric models to estimate the probability that a point measurement is representative of the average slip rate for continuous strike slip faults and those with a range of releasing stepover geometries and friction values all models result in skewed distributions for which a randomly selected site has a higher probability of sampling a slip rate that exceeds the mean for most configurations individual point measurements are unlikely p 0 5 to yield a slip rate within 1 mm yr of the mean the probability can be notably improved 15 300 by summing slip rates of overlapping segments second we use 3d mechanical models of a well studied releasing stepover along the san jacinto fault to investigate the impact of specific fault geometries on slip rate distribution and the implications for existing slip rate estimates the model calculated dextral slip rates are consistent with the abundant geologic slip rate data available for this system although summing the slip rates at geologic sites across the stepover may produce a nonrepresentative slip rate the summed slip rates from the model are compatible with the representative slip rate thus the complete along trace slip rate distribution produced from the geologically consistent models provides a way to select sites for determining slip rates or interpreting isolated geologic slip rate data the site specific models also illustrate how to assess the uncertainty of slip rate data due to the spatial variability of slip rates in geometrically complex fault systems

cosmogenic burial ages reveal sediment reservoir dynamics along the yellow river china burial dating using cosmogenic al 26 and be 10 is an emerging technique for establishing chronologies of fluvial deposits ranging in age from ca 0 5 ma to 5 ma the determination of burial age however requires an assumption that sediment is buried with a known initial al 26 be 10 ratio using a sequence of well dated fluvial terraces along the yellow river in lanzhou china we demonstrate that this assumption may be violated when upstream sediment sources include neogene sedimentary basins samples of fluvial gravel from six terraces yield burial ages ranging from ca 0 83 ma to 2 81 ma comparison of these results to independent ages determined from magneto stratigraphic and loess paleosol studies demonstrates a high degree of correspondence between ages in the lower three terraces in the higher terraces however burial ages are systematically too old implying a previous burial history these results can be exploited to place quantitative constraints on the provenance of sediment in the terrace deposits our results reveal that rapid incision and excavation of late neogene sedimentary basins ca 1 7 ma led to injection of fluvial sediment with low initial al 26 be 10 ratios dilution of this source through time occurred as incision progressed into upstream bedrock ranges our results suggest that cosmogenic nuclides can illuminate the timing of long term storage and remobilization of sediment in continental scale river systems

planar high angle faulting in the basin and range geodetic analysis of the 1983 borah peak idaho earthquake geodetic elevation changes record the broad scale deformation associated with the m 7 0 october 28 1983 borah peak idaho earthquake on the lost river fault the crest of the lost river range rose 0 2 m and adjacent thousand springs valley subsided 1 0 m in relation to reference points 45 km from the main shock epicenter the deformation was modeled by dislocations in an elastic half space a planar fault with uniform dip slip of 2 05 0 10 m dipping 47 o 2osw and extending to a vertical depth of 13 3 1 2 km fits the geodetic data best and is also consistent with the main shock hypocenter and fault plane solution the geodetic moment is 2 6 0 5 x 1019 n m 2 6 0 5 x 1026 dyn cm and the estimated static stress drop is 2 9 0 4 mpa 29 4 bars tests for coseismic slip on listric faults which flatten with depth and on detachments horizontal faults or shear zones showed fits to the geodetic data that are inferior to those for planar high angle faults no detectable coseismic slip occurred on the mesozoic white knob thrust fault although the low angle thrust sheet intersects the south end of lost river fault near the 1983 mainshock epicenter if the high angle lost river fault abuts a flat lying detachment fault or shear zone such a structure must lie at depths of 12 km near the brittle ductile transition where stick slip behavior gives way to creep the depth and geometry of faulting at borah peak is similar to that inferred from seismic and geodetic evidence for the 1954 m 7 2 fairview peak nevada and the 1959 m 7 3 hebgen lake montana events suggesting that if detachments are active at these localities they are deep and most likely slip by creep

late quaternary rate of slip along the san jacinto fault zone near anza southern california the anza section of the san jacinto fault southern california has not experienced a groundbreaking earthquake since at least 1918 and probably since before 1899 leading previous workers to designate this 20 km long fault segment as a seismic gap study of displaced pleistocene and holocene alluvial fan and fluvial deposits across the san jacinto fault near anza california dated using 14c and soil development age control indicates a minimum right lateral slip rate of 9 2 2 mm yr since 9 5 ka and a slip rate of 11 9 5 mm yr since 14 ka 12 9 5 mm yr since 17 ka and 13 10 6 mm yr since 50 ka these estimates agree with a previously determined 700 ka to present minimum slip rate of 10 2 mm yr based on an estimated average slip rate of 12 mm yr from the longer term slip rate estimates about 0 8 m of potential slip has accumulated if the 1918 earthquake broke the anza segment over 1 1 m of potential slip has accumulated if the last earthquake occurred prior to 1899 these data attest to the potential for an earthquake m6 5 for this section of the fault

comparison of geodetic and geologic data from the wasatch region utah and implications for the spectral character of earth deformation at periods of 10 to 10 million years the wasatch fault and adjacent fault zones provide an opportunity to compare present day deformation rate estimates obtained from space geodesy with geologic displacement rates over at least four temporal windows ranging from the last millennium up to 10 myr the three easternmost gps sites of the basin and range geodetic network bargen at this latitude define a 130 km wide region spanning three major normal faults extending east west at a total rate of 2 7 0 4 mm yr with an average regional strain rate estimated to be 21 4 nstrain yr about twice the basin and range average on the wasatch fault the vertical component of the geologic displacement rate is 1 7 0 5 mm yr since 6 ka 0 6 mm yr since 130 ka and 0 5 0 7 mm yr since 10 ma however it appears likely that at the longest timescale rates slowed over time from 1 0 to 1 4 mm yr between 10 and 6 ma to 0 2 to 0 3 mm yr since 6 ma the cumulative vertical displacement record across all three faults also shows time variable strain release ranging from 2 to 4 mm yr since 10 ka to 1 mm yr averaged over the past 130 kyr conventional earthquake recurrence models reid type behavior would require an accordingly large variation in strain accumulation or loading rate on a 10 kyr timescale for which there appears to be no obvious geophysical explanation alternatively seismic strain release given a wide range of plausible constitutive behaviors for frictional sliding may be clustered on the 10 kyr timescale resulting in the high holocene rates with comparatively low uniform strain accumulation rates on the 100 kyr timescale wallace type behavior the latter alternative combined with observations at the million year timescale and the likelihood of a significant contribution of postseismic transients implies maxima of spectral amplitude in the velocity field at periods of 10 myr variations in tectonic loading 10 kyr clustered strain release and of 100 years postseismic transients if so measurements of strain accumulation and strain release may be strongly timescale dependent for any given fault system

the motion of crustal blocks driven by flow of the lower lithosphere and implications for slip rates of continental strike slip faults geodetic measurements in actively deforming areas of the continents reveal the pattern of deformation in the lithosphere if the dominant forces acting on crustal blocks are tractions at their bases then the long term motion of each block will be given by the average velocity of the underlying lithosphere slip rates between blocks estimated in this way from recent geodetic measurements across fault zones in the south island of new zealand and southern california are in good agreement with slip rates estimated geologically

stable rapid rate of slip since inception of the san jacinto fault california 1 in california where the san jacinto fault sjf and san andreas fault saf accommodate the majority of the dextral shear deformation between the pacific and north american plates initiation of the sjf led to an apparent decline in the slip rate of the saf previous studies suggest that since then slip rate has covaried between these faults possibly due to changes in fault strength variation in topographic loading along a fault or the development of new faults and that presently the sjf is the dominant plate boundary structure however we dated displaced sedimentary deposits and landforms over three distinct time intervals since 700 ka and our results imply a constant slip rate of 12 1 3 4 2 6 mm yr this rate is similar to the fault s lifetime rate and from rates derived from geodesy suggesting that since the sjf initiated its slip rate has remained relatively stable and does not exceed that of the saf

transient strain accumulation and fault interaction in the eastern california shear zone satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry reveals transient strain accumulation along the blackwater little lake fault system within the eastern california shear zone the surface strain map obtained by averaging eight years 1992 2000 of earth resource satellite ers radar data shows a 120 km long 20 kmwide zone of concentrated shear between the southern end of the 1872 owens valley earthquake surface break and the northern end of the 1992 landers earthquake surface break the observed shear zone is continuous through the garlock fault which does not show any evidence of left lateral slip during the same time period a dislocation model of the observed shear indicates right lateral slip at 7 6 3 mm yr on a vertical fault below 5 km depth a rate that is two to three times greater than the geologic rates estimated on northwest trending faults in the eastern mojave area this transient slip rate and the absence of resolvable slip on the garlock fault may be the manifestation of an oscillatory strain pattern between interacting conjugate fault systems

new kinematic models for pacific north america motion from 3 ma to present i evidence for steady motion and biases in the nuvel 1a model we use velocities derived from 2 4 5 years of continuous gps observations at 21 sites on the pacific and north american plates along with a subset of the nuvel 1a data to examine the steadiness of pacific north america motion since 3 16 ma the transfer of baja california to the pacific plate and the magnitude of biases in the nuvel 1a estimate of pacific north america motion we find that pacific north america motion has remained steady since 3 16 ma but at rates significantly faster than predicted by nuvel 1a in the vicinity of baja california our gps derived model and recent seafloor spreading rates in the southern gulf of california both indicate that the nuvel 1a model underestimates pacific north america rates by 4 2 mm yr 1 steady pacific north america motion since 3 16 myr and increasing seafloor spreading rates since 3 58 myr in the gulf of california imply that pacific north america motion was partitioned between seafloor spreading in the gulf of california and decelerating slip along faults in or offshore from the baja peninsula

what is shale to a petrophysicist what is a shale in a recent presentation to the geophysical society of houston rune holt attempted to answer the question by listing three attributes of a shale 1 clay minerals should constitute the load bearing framework 2 shales have nanometer pore sizes and nanodarcy permeability 3 surface area is large and water is adsorbed on surfaces or bound inside clay platelets this is a good definition of shales but perhaps a typical geophysicist may not know how to apply it in practice with typical data sets in particular a geophysicist often has no core data and is limited to well logs this article describes how petrophysicists traditionally distinguish sands from shales using typical well logs in clastic sections only lean shales with minimal organic content are considered here

paleoseismic evidence for the 21 april 1918 mw 6 9 surface rupture of the northern clark strand of the central san jacinto fault california abstract in this study we present the results of a new paleoseismic investigation in the south fork wilderness 7 km southeast of blackburn canyon 5 km northwest of hog lake near anza california that demonstrate that the northern clark fault has ruptured twice in the past 300 yrs these new results corroborate previously made interpretations that were based solely on surficial geomorphology that the northern clark fault with a recurrence interval of 100 yrs ruptured in both the november 1800 and april 1918 earthquakes and has a more frequent recurrence interval than the central and southern clark fault

a compositional classification for grain assemblages in fine grained sediments and sedimentary rocks reply abstract a tripartite compositional classification is proposed for sediments and sedimentary rocks that have grain assemblages with greater than 50 percent of a weight or volume of particles smaller than 62 5 m 4 phi tarl terrigenous argillaceous contains a grain assemblage dominated by more than 75 percent of particles of extrabasinal derivation including grains derived from continental weathering and also volcanogenic debris carl calcareous argillaceous contains less than 75 percent of particles of extrabasinal derivation debris and among its intrabasinal grains contains a preponderance of biogenic carbonate particles including carbonate aggregates sarl siliceous argillaceous contains less than 75 percent of particles of extrabasinal derivation and contains a preponderance of biogenic siliceous particles over carbonate grains these three classes of fine grained particulate sediments and rocks effectively separate materials that have distinct depositional settings and systematic contrasts in organic matter content and minor grain types in the subsurface the grain assemblages that define these classes follow contrasting and predictable diagenetic pathways that have significant implications for the evolution of bulk rock properties and thus assigning a fine grained rock to one of these classes is an important first step for predicting its economic and engineering qualities for purposes of description these three class names can be joined to modifier terms denoting rock texture more precise compositional divisions specific grain types of notable importance and diagenetic features

the kozani grevena greece earthquake of 13 may 1995 revisited from a detailed seismological study the kozani earthquake m s 6 6 of 13 may 1995 is the strongest event of the decade in greece and occurred in a region of low seismic activity using regional data and the strong motion record at the kozani station we relocate the mainshock at 40 183 n and 21 660 e beneath the vourinos massif at a depth of 14 2 km we also compute a focal mechanism by body waveform modeling at te leseismic distance which confirms a normal mechanism the most likely plane strikes 240 1 n and dips 40 1 nwithacentroidd epthof 11 1 km modeling of the strong motion record at kozani confirms that nucleation started at the eastern termination of the bottom of the fault six days after the mainshock we installed a network of 40 portable seismological stations for one week around the epicentral region several thousand aftershocks were recorded among which we locate 622 with a precision better than 1 km we compute 181 focal mechanisms that mostly show normal faulting the aftershock seismicity is restricted between 5 and 15 km depth and defines a plane dipping north at an angle of about 35 consistent with the mainshock mechanism seismic activity with the same pattern of normal fault mechanisms is also seen on an antithetic fault connected to the main one at 12 km depth which cuts the ground surface north of the vourinos ophiolite massif in the siatista valley these results suggest two possibilities for the active fault plane either it is the deskati fault that is flat and dips with a constant angle and therefore the surface breaks are secondary features or more likely it is the paleohori fault that is new of listric shape and located ahead of the deskati fault which was not active during the earthquake

incorporating and reporting uncertainties in fault slip rates 1 quantitative slip rate estimates are essential to understanding crustal deformation processes and assessing seismic hazard computing slip rates requires two fundamental ingredients estimates of the age of an offset landforrn or deposit and displacement along the fault of interest because both of these measures contain uncertainty slip rates are inherently uncertain methods to compute and report slip rates have not been standardized and therefore slip rate data are presented inconsistently and are frequently ambiguous in particular slip rate uncertainty is often insufficiently characterized we present a rigorous probabilistic approach to computing and reporting intermediate to long term fault slip rates additionally we have developed freely available software that provides standard age and displacement uncertainty models we demonstrate the method using recent observations from the neodani and death valley fish lake valley fault zones and we compare slip rates determined using this approach with previously published results

the pingding segment of the altyn tagh fault 91 e holocene slip rate determination from cosmogenic radionuclide dating of offset fluvial terraces morphochronologic slip rates on the altyn tagh fault atf along the southern front of the pingding shan at 90 5e are determined by cosmogenic radionuclide crn dating of seven offset terraces at two sites the terraces are defined based upon morphology elevation and dating together with fieldwork and high resolution satellite analysis the majority of the crn model ages fall within narrow ranges 2 ka on the four main terraces t1 t2 t3 and t3 and allow a detailed terrace chronology bounds on the terrace ages and offsets of 5 independent terraces yield consistent slip rate estimates the long term slip rate of 13 9 1 1 mm yr is defined at the 95 confidence level as the joint rate probability distribution of the rate derived from each independent terrace it falls within the bounds of all the rates defined on the central altyn tagh fault between the cherchen he 86 4e and akato tagh 88e sites this rate is 10 mm yr less than the upper rate determined near tura at 87e in keeping with the inference of an eastward decreasing rate due to progressive loss of slip to thrusts branching off the fault southwards but it is greater than the 9 4 mm yr rate determined at 90e by gps surveys and other geodetic short term rates defined elsewhere along the atf whether such disparate rates will ultimately be reconciled by a better understanding of fault mechanics resolved transient deformations during the seismic cycle or by more accurate measurements made with either approach remains an important issue

geodetic investigation of the 13 may 1995 kozani grevena greece earthquake the ms 6 6 13 may 1995 kozani grevena earthquake struck a region of low historical seismic activity which includes a 10 year old triangulation network in northern greece after the earthquake monuments from this network were occupied with gps to measure co seismic displacements inversion of the co seismic displacement field to yield a source mechanism is achieved by use of a hybrid simplex monte carlo method which requires no a priori constraints the model focal mechanism agrees well with the global cmt solution and locally observed aftershocks but implies a significantly higher scalar moment than do seismological or sar interferometry studies and has a longer fault length than the model based on sar interferometry

southern san andreas san jacinto fault system slip rates estimated from earthquake cycle models constrained by gps and interferometric synthetic aperture radar observations we use ground geodetic and interferometric synthetic aperture radar satellite observations across the southern san andreas saf san jacinto sjf fault systems to constrain their slip rates and the viscosity structure of the lower crust and upper mantle on the basis of periodic earthquake cycle maxwell viscoelastic finite element models key questions for this system are the saf and sjf slip rates the slip partitioning between the two main branches of the sjf and the dip of the saf the best fitting models generally have a high viscosity lower crust 10 21 pa s overlying a lower viscosity upper mantle 10 19 pa s we find considerable trade offs between the relative time into the current earthquake cycle of the san jacinto fault and the upper mantle viscosity with reasonable assumptions for the relative time in the earthquake cycle the partition of slip is fairly robust at around 24 26 mm a for the san jacinto fault system and 16 18 mm a for the san andreas fault models for two subprofiles across the saf sjf systems suggest that slip may transfer from the western coyote creek branch to the eastern clark superstition hills branch of the sjf from nw to se across the entire system our best fitting model gives slip rates of 2 3 12 9 12 9 and 17 3 mm a for the elsinore coyote creek clark and san andreas faults respectively where the large uncertainties in the slip rates for the sjf branches reflect the large uncertainty in the slip rate partitioning within the sjf system

micro scale damage characterized within part of a dismembered positive flower structure san jacinto fault southern california usa abstract to better understand the processes that control sub grain fracturing in fault damage zones we studied micro scale damage in sandstones adjacent to the san jacinto fault sjf where it is exhumed from a total depth of 220 m beneath a northeast verging thrust that comprises part of a relic and dismembered flower structure the thrust places high grade gneiss of the pre middle cretaceous burnt valley complex over sedimentary rocks of the pleistocene bautista formation an 10 12 cm thick zone of cataclasite is present along the northeast side of the fault adjacent to a narrow black ultracataclasite core non pervasive microscopic damage characterized by pulverized sand grains extends outward from the zone of cataclasites tens of meters such textures are better developed in sandstones that contain

fault displacement rates on a range of timescales abstract displacements on tectonic faults primarily accrue during earthquakes at rates that vary through time to examine the processes that underlie the temporal changes in fault displacement rates we analyse displacements and displacement rates for time periods from the present to 5 10 20 300 500 1000 and 5000 kyr for 261 active reverse or normal faults from a worldwide dataset displacement rates depart from million year average rates by up to three orders of magnitude with the size of these departures inversely related to the duration of the sample period and to fault length short term 20 kyr displacement rates generally span a greater range on small faults than large a feature which suggests more variable growth on smaller faults simple earthquake slip modeling shows that variations in displacement rates require changes in both recurrence interval and slip per event and do not support the characteristic slip earthquake model as long as fault system strain rates are uniform displacement rates generally become constant over time periods between 20 and 300 kyr with the length of time required to reach stability being inversely related to the regional basin wide strain rates stable long term displacement rates and fluctuations in earthquake recurrence intervals and slip arise in part due to fault interactions

initiation of the san jacinto fault and its interaction with the san andreas fault insights from geodynamic modeling the san andreas fault saf is the pacific north american plate boundary yet in southern california a significant portion of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the san jacinto fault sjf here we investigate the initiation of the sjf and its interaction with the saf in a three dimensional visco elasto plastic finite element model the model results show that the restraining bend of the southern saf causes strain localization along the sjf thus may have contributed to its initiation slip on the sjf tends to reduce slip rate on the saf and enhance deformation in the eastern california shear zone the initiation of the sjf and its interaction with the saf reflect the evolving plate boundary zone as it continuously seeks the most efficient way to accommodate the relative plate motion

the 1995 grevena northern greece earthquake fault model constrained with tectonic observations and sar interferometry after the 1995 grevena ms 6 6 event in northern greece we mapped the earthquake fault break in detail the surface break is small 8 12 km long 4 cm slip compared to the moment release of the event however the morphologic and tectonic study of the active faults in the field and using the spot satellite imagery suggests that the earthquake ruptured part of a much larger fault system including interconnecting segments we used sar interferometry of the satellite ers 1 imagery to characterize the coseismic displacement field this shows a kidney shaped zone of subsidence reaching 30 cm flanked by an uplift zone reaching 5 cm we reproduce this field using dislocations in an elastic half space and our observations of the fault system this requires 1 m slip from 4 to 15 km depth on a main normal fault segment dipping nnw our preliminary model includes significant ne dipping scissors faulting at the eastern end of the rupture clearly seen in the interferograms

a mechanistic erosion model for cosmogenic nuclide inheritance in single clast exposure ages abstract terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides tcns produced by the bombardment of earth s surface by cosmic rays are widely used for age dating and pacing surface processes sediments carry an inherited tcn concentration useful for quantifying erosion and transport rates but that must be subtracted when age dating sedimentary landforms such as alluvial fans here we present a mechanistic model of inheritance based on the contributions of episodic erosion by landsliding and steady background erosion due to soil formation the balance of these processes revealed by the distribution of inheritance recorded by a population of individual surface clasts affects rates of soil generation and the cycling of material through the earth s critical zone the surficial layer upon which all terrestrial life depends we test our inheritance model on alluvial fan tcn datasets drawn from a global compilation of active fault slip rate studies inheritance corrected landform ages are systematically younger than published ages our results reveal a consistent signature of spatiotemporal clustering of landslides important for quantifying hazard and for understanding the coupling of physical and chemical erosion application of our inheritance model provides a rigorous approach to correcting landform ages for inheritance and reveals information on landslide frequency with broad implications for hazard and land use

inception of the eastern california shear zone and evolution of the pacific north american plate boundary from kinematics to geodynamics 1 the san andreas fault saf is the transform boundary between the pacific and the north american plates yet up to 25 of the relative plate motion is now accommodated by the eastern california shear zone ecsz here we investigate the inception of the ecsz and its geodynamic interactions with the saf using a 3 d viscoelastoplastic finite element model for a given fault configuration of the plate boundary zone the model simulates long term slip on the faults and plastic strain outside the faults our results show that the formation of the big bend of the saf around 5 12 ma impeded fault slip and localized strain along the ecsz causing its inception development of the ecsz was further enhanced by the activation of the garlock fault gf and lithospheric weakening caused by the encroachment of the basin and range extension similarly the san jacinto fault sjf in southern california developed along a belt of localized strain which resulted from the formation of the restraining bend along the san bernardino mountains segment of the saf 2 myr ago once activated the sjf reduced slip on both the southern saf and the ecsz across the mojave desert these results indicate causative relationship between the saf and the ecsz the inception of the ecsz and other young faults is the consequence of the evolving saf plate boundary zone that continuously adjusts itself to accommodate the relative plate motion

seismic imaging of the southern california plate boundary around the south central transverse ranges using double difference tomography we derive high resolution p and s seismic velocities vp and vs within the south central transverse ranges section of the san andreas fault saf using a new double difference tomography algorithm incorporating both event pair and station pair differential times the addition of station pair data allows for better absolute event locations and higher model resolution at shallow depths velocities within a 222 km 164 km region are inverted using 1 000 000 p and s arrival picked with an automatic detection algorithm and differential times from 10 000 local events recorded by 250 stations similarly large p and s datasets lead to high quality vp vs estimates of the region the resulting models include low velocities along major fault segments and across fault velocity contrasts they also show very high vp vs anomalies near shallow damaged rock whereas fault zones exhibit either low 1 73 vp vs characteristics at greater depth the variations in amplitude of these anomalies along the saf through san gorgonio pass sgp suggest abrupt west to east changes in elastic properties moreover their geometries imply near vertical saf segments northwest of sgp and northeast dipping faults southeast of that area the saf near coachella valley is estimated to dip by 57 regional scale low and high vp vs values are related to relative abundances of crystalline or metamorphic rocks near fault vp vs anomalies at depth are likely associated with changes in wet crack geometries the obtained results can improve future calculations of seismic motion from large earthquakes in the area and related seismic hazard estimates

reconciling geologic and geodetic model fault slip rate discrepancies in southern california consideration of nonsteady mantle flow and lower crustal fault creep in southern california slip rates derived from geodesy constrained elastic models are lower than geologic rates along the mojave and san bernardino segments of the san andreas fault and the garlock fault in contrast the summed geodetic rate across the mojave eastern california shear zone ecsz is significantly higher than the summed geologic rate we show that geodetic and geologic slip rates in southern california can be reconciled using a viscoelastic earthquake cycle model that explicitly incorporates time dependent deformation due to nonsteady interseismic fault creep in the lower crust and viscous flow in the upper mantle to reconcile geologic and geodetic model rates our model requires that the southern san andreas fault and the garlock fault are in the late stages of the earthquake cycle resulting in lower current deformation rates than the cycle averaged rate our model implies that the ecsz and the san jacinto faults are in the early stages of the earthquake cycle resulting in high current deformation rates

paleoseismology of the johnson valley kickapoo and homestead valley faults clustering of earthquakes in the eastern california shear zone paleoseismic data from 11 trenches at seven sites excavated across the southern johnson valley kickapoo and homestead valley faults that ruptured in the 1992 landers earthquake as well as the northern johnson valley fault which did not fail in 1992 indicate that the return period for large surface rupturing events in this part of the eastern california shear zone is in the range of 5 15 ka the inferred slip rates based on their respective recurrence intervals are in the range of 0 2 0 6 mm yr for each of the faults studied a previous large earthquake ruptured the southern johnson valley and kickapoo faults about 5 ka b p the northern johnson valley fault also failed at about this time at 5 8 ka b p and may have been part of the same rupture in contrast the penultimate large earthquake that we identify on the homestead valley fault occurred about 15 ka b p much earlier than other faults involved in the 1992 rupture from these observations combined with paleoseismic work by others after the 1992 earth quake it appears that previous events along the southern johnson valley and kick apoo faults were different than those of 1992 and may have involved other fault segments it has been over 5 ka since the most recent rupture on the northern johnson valley fault therefore it is surprising that it did not fail in the 1992 rupture from our observations dextral shear appears to be distributed across the entire eastern california shear zone with individual faults taking only a small proportion of the overall slip release of this regional strain appears to occur in temporal clusters of large earthquakes with the 1992 event apparently the most recent of a sequence of late holocene 0 1 ka earthquakes that have ruptured the nine faults we have trenched in the southwestern mojave desert previous clusters of earthquake activity occurred in the early 8 9 ka and middle 5 6 ka holocene and possibly the latest pleistocene 15 ka

low velocity zones along the san jacinto fault southern california from body waves recorded in dense linear arrays we derive high resolution information on low velocity fault zone fz structures along the san jacinto fault zone sjfz southern california using waveforms of local earthquakes that are recorded at multiple linear cross fault arrays we observe clear across fault delays of direct p and s waves indicating damage zones at different segments of the sjfz we then compute synthetic traveltimes and waveforms using generalized ray theory and perform forward modeling to constrain the fz parameters at the southern section near the trifurcation area the low velocity zone lvz of the clark branch has a width of 200 m 30 45 reduction in vp and 50 reduction in vs from array data across the anza seismic gap we find a lvz with 200 m width and 50 reduction in both vp and vs nearly as prominent as that on the southern section we only find prominent lvzs beneath three out of the five arrays indicating along strike variations of the fault damage fz reflected phases are considerably less clear than those observed above the rupture zone of the 1992 landers earthquake shortly after the event this may reflect partially healed lvzs with less sharp boundaries at the sjfz given the relatively long lapse time from the last large surface rupturing event alternatively the lack of observed fz reflected phases could be partially due to the relatively small aperture of the arrays nevertheless the clear signatures of damage zones at anza and other locations indicate very slow healing process at least in the top few kilometers of the crust

elevated shear zone loading rate during an earthquake cluster in eastern california we compare geodetic velocity to geologic fault slip rates to show that tectonic loading was doubled across the eastern california shear zone ecsz during a cluster of major earthquake activity new slip rates are presented for six dextral faults that compose the ecsz in the central mojave desert these rates were determined from displaced alluvial fans dated with cosmogenic 10 be and from a displaced lava flow dated with 40 ar 39 ar we find that the sum geologic mojave ecsz slip rate 6 2 1 9 mm yr is only half the present day geodetically measured velocity of 12 2 mm yr these rates account for cumulative fault slip and geodetic observations that span the 60 km wide shear zone therefore this difference cannot be attributed to postseismic relaxation redistribution of tectonic loading over the earthquake cycle at a regional scale suggests that earthquake clustering may be enhanced via feedback with weakening of ductile shear zones

characterizing the uppermost 100 m structure of the san jacinto fault zone southeast of anza california through joint analysis of geological topographic seismic and resistivity data

temporal clustering of major earthquakes along individual faults due to post seismic reloading palaeoseismic evidence suggests that earthquake recurrence intervals in some regions can be highly variable with clusters of multiple large events separated by much longer periods of quiescence because post seismic processes have a significant effect on the reloading rate of the coseismic fault we hypothesize that temporal variations in the amount of stress concentrated in the non seismogenic lithosphere can modulate large earthquake recurrence times we explore this hypothesis using simple analogue spring dashpot slider models we find that in the presence of small amounts of environmental noise post seismic stress transfer over timescales much longer than an earthquake cycle may be an important factor in generating clustering behaviour the propensity for the system to be clustered is a function of a non dimensional number that we call the wallace number w w is defined as the average earthquake stress drop divided by the product of the long term geologic strain rate across the fault and the effective viscosity of the system our results indicate that environments with relatively low strain rates and a relatively weak non seismogenic lithosphere are most susceptible to clustering driven by post seismic stress recycling mechanisms

the clay fabric of shales is a strain gauge abstract shales with their large clay fraction are prone to deform in an almost ductile way under tectonic loading here we propose to monitor and quantify the evolution of strained shales clay fabric in the field of illite diagenesis by using magnetic fabric in the footwall of a south pyrenean thrust 281 shales samples have been collected along a 2 km long exceptional exposure the cleavage evolves from pencil structures at 1 km of the thrust to pencil cleavage at 850 m and slaty cleavage at 170 m the average magnetic foliation of illite remains nearly parallel to bedding over a distance of 600 m despite development of pencil cleavage it is at 600 m of the thrust that illite foliation shifts gradually from bedding to cleavage by contrast the magnetic fabric scalar data reflect a more continuous evolution of the deformation the application of a rigid rotation model of the clays allows to quantify the strain magnitude using eigen values of tensor this strain magnitude is consistent with distance to the thrust and conforms favorably with a trishear modelling of this thrust damage we demonstrate therefore that the magnetic fabric of illite rich shales is a strain gauge

geology of the caldiran fault eastern turkey age slip rate and implications on the characteristic slip behaviour abstract the caldiran fault is a strike slip fault with a dextral slip in east anatolia the activity on this fault was marked by the november 24 1976 earthquake mw 7 1 which produced an 50 km long surface rupture and caused 3840 fatalities which was close to half of the population living along the fault at that time together with the north tabriz fault in iran it is regarded as the southern boundary of the caucasus block the fault has an average annual slip rate of 8 1 from 10 8 mm yr 1 as derived from elastic block modelling we present results from a detailed morphotectonic survey along the fault the caldiran fault is comprised of three segments each of which is eparated by bend structures that bend towards the sw with a total change in strike of 20 from east to west the offsets of lithological contact markers show that the long term geological slip rate for the caldiran fault is approximately 3 27 0 17 mm yr 1for a duration of approximately 290 ka the cumulative offset of the fault was determined from an analysis of a dome shaped rhyolitic volcano which constrained the age of the fault to the middle late pleistocene an analysis of small scale morphological offset markers indicates a characteristic slip behaviour of the caldiran fault for the last 3 events with an average offset of 2 6 m

long term slip rate of the southern san andreas fault from 10be 26al surface exposure dating of an offset alluvial fan we determine the long term slip rate of the southern san andreas fault in the southeastern indio hills using 10 be and 26 al isotopes to date an offset alluvial fan surface field mapping complemented with topographic data air photos and satellite images allows precise determination of piercing points across the fault zone that are used to measure an offset of 565 80 m a total of 26 quartz rich cobbles from three different fan surfaces were collected and dated the tight cluster of nuclide concentrations from 19 samples out of 20 from the offset fan surface implies a simple exposure history negligible prior exposure and erosion and yields an age of 35 5 2 5 ka the long term slip rate of the san andreas fault south of biskra palms is thus 15 9 3 4 mm yr this rate is about 10 mm yr slower than geological 0 14 ka and short term geodetic estimates for this part of the san andreas fault implying changes in slip rate or in faulting behavior this result puts new constraints on the slip rate of the san jacinto and on the eastern california shear zone for the last 35 kyr our study shows that more sites along the major faults of southern california need to be targeted to better constrain the slip rates over different timescales

lidar and field observations of slip distribution for the most recent surface ruptures along the central san jacinto fault we measured offsets on tectonically displaced geomorphic features along 80 km of the clark strand of the san jacinto fault sjf to estimate slip per event for the past several surface ruptures we identify 168 offset features from which we make over 490 measurements using b4 light detection and ranging lidar imagery and field observations our results suggest that lidar technology is an exemplary supplement to traditional field methods in slip per event studies displacement estimates indicate that the most recent surface rupturing event mre produced an average of 2 5 2 9 m of right lateral slip with maximum slip of nearly 4 m at anza a m w 7 2 7 5 earthquake average multiple event offsets for the same 80 kms are 5 5 m with maximum values of 3 m at anza for the penultimate event cumulative displacements of 9 10 m through anza suggest the third event was also similar in size paleoseismic work at hog lake dates the most recent surface rupture event at ca 1790 a poorly located large earthquake occurred in southern california on 22 november 1800 we relocate this event to the clark fault based on the mre at hog lake we also recognize the occurrence of a younger rupture along 15 20 km of the fault in blackburn canyon with 1 25 m of average displacement we attribute these offsets to the 21 april 1918 m w 6 9 event these data argue that much or all of the clark fault and possibly also the casa loma fault fail together in large earthquakes but that shorter sections may fail in smaller events online material topographic contour maps and hillshades generated from b4 lidar data corresponding field photographs and data tables comparing lidar based and field based slip measurements for individual geomorphic features along the clark fault

fault behavior and characteristic earthquakes examples from the wasatch and san andreas fault zones paleoseismological data for the wasatch and san andreas fault zones have led to the formulation of the characteristic earthquake model which postulates that individual faults and fault segments tend to generate essentially same size or characteristic earthquakes having a relatively narrow range of magnitudes near the maximum analysis of scarp derived colluvium in trench exposures across the wasatch fault provides estimates of the timing and displacement associated with individual surface faulting earthquakes at all of the sites studied the displacement per event has been consistently large measured values range from 1 6 to 2 6 m and the average is about 2 m on the basis of variability in the timing of individual events as well as changes in scarp morphology and fault geometry six major segments are recognized along the wasatch fault on the basis of the most likely number of surface faulting events 18 that have occurred on segments of the wasatch fault zone during the past 8000 years an average recurrence interval of 400 666 years with a preferred average of 444 years is calculated for the entire zone geologic data on the distribution of slip associated with prehistoric earthquakes and slip rates along the south central segment of the san andreas fault suggest that the m 8 1857 earthquake is a characteristic earthquake for this segment comparisons of earthquake recurrence relationships on both the wasatch and san andreas faults based on historical seismicity data and geologic data show that a linear constant b value extrapolation of the cumulative recurrence curve from the smaller magnitudes leads to gross underestimates of the frequency of occurrence of the large or characteristic earthquakes only by assuming a low b value in the moderate magnitude range can the seismicity data on small earthquakes be reconciled with geologic data on large earthquakes the characteristic earthquake appears to be a fundamental aspect of the behavior of the wasatch and san andreas faults and may apply to many other faults as well

late quaternary slip rate gradient defined using high resolution topography and 10be dating of offset landforms on the southern san jacinto fault zone california 1 recent studies suggest the san jacinto fault zone may be the dominant structure accommodating pa na relative plate motion however because the late quaternary slip history of the southern san andreas fault system is insufficiently understood it is difficult to evaluate the partitioning of deformation across the plate boundary and its evolution landforms displaced by the clark fault of the southern san jacinto fault zone were mapped using high resolution airborne laser swath topography and selected offset landforms were dated using cosmogenic 10be beheaded channels at rockhouse canyon displaced by 500 70 m and 220 70 m have been dated to 47 8 ka and 28 9 ka respectively farther south near the southern santa rosa mountains an alluvial deposit displaced by 51 9 m has been dated to 35 7 ka from these sites the slip rate of the clark fault is determined to diminish southward from 8 9 2 0 to 1 5 0 4 mm yr this implies a slip rate decrease along the clark fault from anza southeastward to its surface termination near the salton trough where slip is transferred to the coyote creek fault and additional deformation is compensated by folding and thrusting in the basin these data suggest that since 30 to 50 ka the slip rate along the southern san jacinto fault zone has been lower than or equivalent to the rate along the southernmost san andreas fault accordingly either the slip rate of the san jacinto fault has substantially decreased since fault initiation or fault slip began earlier than previously suggested

latest pleistocene and holocene slip rate for the san bernardino strand of the san andreas fault plunge creek southern california implications for strain partitioning within the southern san andreas fault system for the last 35 k y an alluvial succession on the northeast side of the san bernardino strand of the san andreas fault includes distinctive aggradational and degradational features that can be matched with correlative features on the southwest side of the fault key among these are 1 a terrace riser on the northeast side of the fault that correlates with an offset channel wall on the southwest side of the fault and forms a basis for slip estimates for the period ca 35 ka to the present and 2 a small alluvial fan on the southwest side of the fault that has been matched with its most likely source gullies on the northeast side of the fault and forms a basis for slip estimates for the last 10 5 k y slip rate estimates for these two separate intervals are nearly identical the rate for the older feature is most likely between 8 3 and 14 5 mm yr with a 95 confidence interval of 7 0 15 7 mm yr the rate for the younger feature is most likely between 6 8 and 16 3 mm yr with a 95 confidence interval of 6 3 18 5 mm yr these rates are only half the previously published slip rate for the san andreas fault 35 km to the northwest in cajon pass a rate that traditionally is extrapolated southeastward along the san bernardino section of the fault results from plunge creek suggest that about half of the 25 mm yr rate at cajon pass transfers southeastward to the san jacinto fault as proposed by other workers on the basis of regional geologic relations these results indicate that the discrepancy between latest quaternary slip rates and present day rates of strain accumulation across the san bernardino section of the san andreas fault from geodesy can be largely explained by slip transfer between faults leading to spatial variation in rate along the san andreas fault nonetheless the latest pleistocene and holocene slip rate at plunge creek is still somewhat faster than rates inferred for the san bernardino section of the san andreas fault based on elastic block modeling of geodetic data and may be more appropriate than those rates for hazard estimation

long range and long term fault interactions in southern california paleoseismological data suggest the occurrence of four bursts of seismic moment release in the los angeles region during the past 12 000 yr the historic period appears to be part of an ongoing lull that has persisted for about the past 1000 yr these periods of rapid seismic displacement in the los angeles region have occurred during the lulls between similar bursts of activity observed on the eastern california shear zone in the mojave desert which is now seismically active a kinematic model in which the faults of the greater san andreas system suppress activity on faults in the eastern california shear zone and vice versa can explain the apparent switching of activity between the two fault networks combined with the observation that short term geodetic and longer term geologic rates co vary on major southern california fault systems this suggests that either 1 a temporal cluster of seismic displacements on upper crustal faults increases ductile deformation on their downward extensions or 2 rapid ductile slip in the lower crust beneath faults loads the upper crust driving a seismic cluster we suggest that alternating periods of rapid seismic displacement may be the expected mode of seismicity when two fault systems accommodate the same plate boundary motion and slip on one system suppresses slip on the other

fault slip rates effects of elastic heterogeneity on geodetic data and the strength of the lower crust in the salton trough region southern california 1 in southernmost california the salton trough sedimentary basin lies between the subparallel san jacinto and san andreas faults that together with the elsinore fault accommodate 80 of the 50 mm yr of pacific north american relative motion the slip rates on the san andreas and san jacinto faults have been a matter of recent debate and one source of uncertainty has been the influence of crustal strength heterogeneity due to elastically weak basin sediments on geodetic data to evaluate these effects we have modeled regional kinematics with elastic and viscoelastic finite element models that incorporate laterally and vertically varying crustal material properties we find that in general the effects of the sedimentary basin on surface deformation are relatively small and that to explain the geodetic velocity data the slip rate on the san andreas must be higher than that on the san jacinto fault consistent with traditional geologic estimates we also conclude that a relatively strong lower crust of viscosity 5 x 10 19 pa s exists in this region

kinematic modeling of fault slip rates using new geodetic velocities from a transect across the pacific north america plate boundary through the san bernardino mountains california 2015 american geophysical union all rights reserved campaign gps data collected from 2002 to 2014 result in 41 new site velocities from the san bernardino mountains and vicinity we combined these velocities with 93 continuous gps velocities and 216 published velocities to obtain a velocity profile across the pacific north america plate boundary through the san bernardino mountains we modeled the plate boundary parallel horizontal deformation with 5 14 parallel and one obliquely oriented screw dislocations within an elastic half space our rate for the san bernardino strand of the san andreas fault 6 5 3 6mm yr is consistent with recently published latest quaternary rates at the 95 confidence level and is slower than our rate for the san jacinto fault 14 1 2 9mm yr our modeled rate for all faults of the eastern california shear zone ecsz combined 15 7 2 9mm yr is faster than the summed latest quaternary rates for these faults even when an estimate of permanent off fault deformation is included the rate discrepancy is concentrated on faults near the 1992 landers and 1999 hector mine earthquakes the geodetic and geologic rates agree within uncertainties for other faults within the ecsz coupled with the observation that postearthquake deformation is faster than the pre 1992 deformation this suggests that the ecsz geodetic geologic rate discrepancy is directly related to the timing and location of these earthquakes and is likely the result of viscoelastic deformation in the mantle that varies over the timescale of an earthquake cycle rather than a redistribution of plate boundary slip at a timescale of multiple earthquake cycles or longer