stress directions in eastern north america determined to 4 5 km from borehole elongation measurements stress directions have been determined to depths of 4 5 km in eastern north america from borehole elongation measured by dipmeter calipers in 47 wells the average maximum horizontal stress directions are eastern canada n54 e 7 appalachian basin n58 e 8 and the illinois basin n89 w 5 stress directions determined for the illinois and appalachian basins are in agreement with published interpretations from hydraulic fractures and earthquake fault plane solutions new results from eastern canada and the appalachian basin show that stress directions are everywhere consistent with the midcontinent stress province these data suggest that the maximum horizontal stress does not rotate from the ene midcontinent trend to nw near the atlantic coast a directional analysis of hydraulic fractures petal centerline fractures and natural fractures from the appalachian basin shows that borehole elongation is systematically aligned perpendicular to the directions of hydraulic fractures centerline fractures and northeast striking natural fractures but is not systematically aligned with northwest striking natural fractures these observations indicate that borehole elongations provide reliable stress orientations

seismically active fold and thrust belt in the san joaquin valley central california structural analysis of late cenozoic folds along the western and southern margins of the san joaquin basin suggests that the folds are related to development of a fold and thrust belt rather than to wrench tectonics the folds have formed by the processes of fault bend folding and fault propagation folding which commonly occur in fold and thrust belts our structural interpretation attributes the seismically active coalinga and kettleman hills north dome anticlines to fault bend folding above a thrust fault s that steps up from a detachment within the franciscan assemblage to a detachment at the base of the great valley group this thrust does not reach the surface blind thrust and its slip is consumed in backthrusting and formation of subsurface folds under the san joaquin valley movement on the postulated thrust s would explain the cause of the may 2 1983 coalinga earthquake and the august 15 1985 avenal earthquake and would account for the lack of significant surface rupture or shallow subsurface faulting during both earthquakes well documented examples of fault bend and fault propagation folding also occur at wheeler ridge in the san emigdio mountains and at kettleman hills south dome deformation associated with fold and thrust belts can be extremely complicated considerable fault movement can occur without accompanying surface rupture or shallow level faulting conversely surface rupture can occur that has no direct relationship to fault slip at depth an example would be flexural slip folding wherein the slip planes reach the surface but do not root into any significant faults at depth consequently traditional geologic approaches to seismic risk evaluation which rely largely on surface data are subject to numerous pitfalls when applied to fold and thrust belts our interpretation of the structural style that developed in central california during the late cenozoic requires that the strain associated with the transpressive motion between the pacific and north american plates be resolved into normal and tangential components thrust faulting and folding normal to the plate boundary and strike slip faulting parallel to the plate boundary san andreas fault the thrust faults root in a deecollement at the brittle ductile transition zone above which shortening is associated with folding and thrust faulting and beneath which shortening in the lower crust is accommodated by ductile processes of tectonic thickening or incipient subduction

a numerical method for determining the state of stress using focal mechanisms of earthquake populations application to tibetan teleseisms and microseismicity of southern peru the numerical method described in this paper enables the study in terms of stress of the kinematics of seismic faults provided by focal mechanisms this method assumes a mean state of stress in the source region and is based on the simple mechanical model used for fault population analysis which supposes slip in the direction of the resolved shear stress acting on the fault plane the proposed algorithm first defines compressional and tensional zones resulting from superimposition of the compressional and tensional quadrants limited by the nodal planes this enables one to test the data homogeneity furthermore this restricts the space where the principal stress axes have to be searched then for each principal stress reference whose location is constrained by above confined zones the r value chosen equal to 2 1 3 1 is computed which fits the slip vector on each nodal plane this permits one to select a set of preferred seismic fault planes from a set of auxiliary planes finally a state of stress is computed from the preferred seismic fault plane set using the non linear simplex method already applied to fault populations this algorithm is constructed so as to avoid two major difficulties misleading estimation of the deviatoric stress tensor which may result from excessive emphasis by minimizing the residuals by a least squares method if some of the data are wrong and a lengthy prospection of the stress references over all the space of directions this calculation does not take into account possible changes of the strike and dip of the nodal planes however we use rotations of nodal planes in agreement with the first arrival data to test the compatibility of these data with the computed state of stress tibetan teleseisms and southern peruvian microseisms are analyzed and results are compared with kinematics of superficial recent and active faults measured in field in the same regions this suggests that major seismic events may give a good evaluation of the regional mean state of stress focal mechanisms of the small events are also modelled by a mean stress deviator but this differs significantly from the regional state of stress in southern peru deduced from quaternary faulting this may be due to imprecise location of the small events however some movements are strongly different from those predicted by the computed mean stress deviator this suggests that small fault kinematics surely depend on the regional state of stress but that local effects may control the small deformations

present day stress orientations adjacent to active strike slip faults california and sumatra present day stress directions interpreted from well bore breakouts adjacent to two crastal scale active strike slip faults the san andreas fault in california and the great sumatran fault in sumatra indicate that the maximum horizontal stress direction sh is oriented at a high angle 70 90 to both faults the regionally defined stress fields spanning these faults show that adjacent young or actively growing folds have formed orthogonal to sh and are therefore in the thrust fault orientation these observations indicate a decoupling of the strike slip and compressional components of the deformation within these broadly transpressive zones borehole breakouts in 118 wells in western california indicate a regionally consistent stress pattern with sh generally oriented ne sw nearly perpendicular 80 90 to the strike of the san andreas fault the orientation of sh nearly perpendicular to the san andreas fault implies low shear stress on the fault and is consistent with geological interpretations of the coast and transverse ranges indicating active compressional deformation fault plane solutions for recent dip slip style earthquakes principal stress directions determined from inversion of earthquake focal mechanisms and induced hydraulic fracture orientations a stress trajectory map for western california is computed using an iterative statistical algorithm in which observed directional data such as breakout directions are used to obtain a model regional stress field analysis of well bore breakouts in 25 wells within the central and southern oil districts of sumatra indicates that the regionally defined sh adjacent to the active great sumatran strike slip fault is oriented at a high angle 70 80 to the fault this orientation of sh is consistent regionally with geologic stress indicators and focal mechanisms of dip slip earthquakes preliminary analysis of the stress field in the vicinity of the philippine and alpine faults suggests sh is also oriented at a high angle to these active strike slip faults similarly the minimum horizontal stress sh is oriented at a high angle to the the kane and dead sea transforms the observation of sh and sh in the vicinity of active strike slip faults being oriented nearly perpendicular and parallel to the faults suggests that large crustal scale strike slip faults may in general be inherently weak surfaces

a new branch of the philippine fault system as observed from aeromagnetic and seismic data abstract the philippine fault is one of the major strike slip faults of the world extending over 1200 km from the lingayen la union region of northwestern luzon to the davao gulf south of mindanao nevertheless its total slip history of displacement and its exact location have been uncertain and even controversial significant new insight has been provided by aeromagnetic and seismic surveys made as part of a basin evaluation project of the philippines bureau of energy development funded by the world bank this paper outlines evidence from these surveys for a previously unrecognized major branch of the philippine fault system and tentatively discusses its paleogeographic implications we have interpreted aeromagnetic data covering most of the length of the fault and seismic profiles crossing it at various locations the philippine fault is well displayed in the aeromagnetic data surprisingly the data also show a major previously unrecognized branch of the philippine fault here named the sibuyan sea branch this branch is almost entirely offshore or is covered by quaternary or recent volcanic rocks it leaves the known philippine fault northeast of masbate island passes along the northeast edge of the sibuyan sea southwest of the bondoc peninsula passes northeast of marinduque island apparently passes through the taal volcano and then offshore west of the batangas peninsula the sibuyan sea branch is 350 km long and is presently active it is more obvious on seismic and aeromagnetic data than the northern part of the known philippine fault and thus may have accommodated more motion we have made a preliminary evaluation of the total slip on the sibuyan sea branch by attempting to restore long wavelength geophysical and geologic features including forearc basins ophiolite belts volcanic belts and regional bouguer free air and magnetic anomalies which suggests the possibility of 200 300 km of slip since about the early or middle miocene in this reconstruction the central luzon basin and luzon volcanic arc are continuous with the forearc basin and volcanic belt on panay as a continuous arc and forearc extending from northern ilocos to southern panay after collision with the palawan mindoro continental block continued motion along the manila trench north of mindoro has ruptured the central philippines along the sibuyan sea branch of the philippine fault thus the sibuyan sea branch could account for most of the post early to middle miocene relative motion between luzon and the visayas

smoothing and extrapolation of crustal stress orientation measurements the theory and mechanics of a statistical smoothing algorithm for estimating stress fields based on observed data are described incorporated into the algorithm are tunable parameters which allow the user to adjust the smoothness and fidelity of the fitted stress field in addition the user has the option of using robustness weights or to weight the predicted stress field by assigning quality ranks to each data point fitted stress fields can be displayed as either a gridded map axes of maximum or minimum horizontal stress are shown as short bars located at each point in an evenly spaced grid or as a stress trajectory map examples of predicted stress fields for southern california and western canada based on borehole elongation data are displayed as stress trajectory maps a predicted paleostress field for the spanish peaks intrusion complex in colorado based on vertical dike orientations is displayed as a gridded map the smoothing algorithm is not limited to the analysis of stress orientation data any data consisting of a set of undirected lines measured at discrete locations are appropriate for input possible candidates include strain data mineral or intersection lineations and lineaments

in situ stress natural fracture distribution and borehole elongation in the auburn geothermal well auburn new york hydraulic fracturing stress measurements and a borehole televiewer survey were conducted in a 1 6 km deep well at auburn new york this well which was drilled at the outer margin of the appalachian fold and thrust belt in the appalachian plateau penetrates approximately 1540 m of lower paleozoic sedimentary rocks and terminates 60 m into the precambrian marble basement analysis of the hydraulic fracturing tests indicates that the minimum horizontal principal stress increases in a nearly linear fashion from 9 9 0 2 mpa at 593 m to 30 6 0 4 mpa at 1482 m the magnitude of the maximum horizontal principal stress increases in a less regular fashion from 13 8 1 2 mpa to 49 0 2 0 mpa over the same depth range the magnitudes of the horizontal principal stresses relative to the calculated overburden stress are somewhat lower than is the norm for this region and are indicative of a strike slip faulting regime that at some depths is transitional to normal faulting as expected from the relative aseismicity of central new york state however analysis of the magnitudes of the horizontal principal stresses indicates at least to a depth of 1 5 km that frictional failure on favorably oriented preexisting fault planes is unlikely orientations of the hydraulic fractures at 593 and 919 m indicate that the azimuth of the maximum horizontal principal stress at auburn is n83 e 15 in agreement with other stress field indicators for this region the borehole televiewer log revealed a considerable number of planar features in the auburn well the great majority of which are subhorizontal dips 5 and are thought to be bedding plane washouts or drill bit scour marks in addition a smaller number of distinct natural fractures were observed on the borehole televiewer log of these the distinct steeply dipping natural fractures in the lower half of the sedimentary section at auburn tend to strike approximately east west while those in the upper part of the well and in the precambrian basement exhibit no strong preferred orientation the origin of this east west striking fracture set is uncertain as it is parallel both to the contemporary direction of maximum horizontal compression and to a late paleozoic fracture set that has been mapped to the south of auburn in addition to these planar features the borehole televiewer log indicates paired dark bands on diametrically opposite sides of the borehole throughout the auburn well processing of the borehole televiewer data in the time domain revealed these features to be irregular depressions in the borehole wall as these depressions were consistently oriented in a direction at right angles to the direction of maximum horizontal compression we interpret them to be the result of stress induced spalling of the borehole wall breakouts

predesign failure and displacement mechanisms of large rockslides in the annapurna himalayas nepal abstract the paper analyses and compares four major mass movements rockslides and rock avalanches with volumes of 1 to 5 km3 around the annapurna himalayan region from engineering geological quaternary geological and geomorphological viewpoints it shows how paleotectonic and neotectonic predesign as well as morphological overprint caused by glacial activities are the main preparatory causal factors for the sliding events that is why giant failures of mountain crests have mainly occurred in areas of tectonic activity the mechanism of failure and displacement of the resulting large mass movements also strongly depends on this litho tectonic predesign and continues in giant translational rockslides in which the primary rock structure or fabric is preserved but shattered by mechanical stress during the sliding event

fault plane solutions for the 1984 morgan hill california earthquake sequence evidence for the state of stress on the calaveras fault fault plane solutions for 946 aftershocks of the april 24 1984 morgan hill california m6 2 earthquake reveal a pattern of complex faulting within a 10 km wide zone surrounding the calaveras fault the fault plane solutions fall into three groups strike slip mechanisms located along the calaveras fault with north northwest striking dextral slip planes nearly parallel to the fault strike slip mechanisms located northeast of the calaveras fault with north striking dextral slip planes and reverse mechanisms located southwest of the calaveras fault with northeast or southwest dipping slip planes the average azimuth of p axes for aftershocks located on the calaveras fault is n10 1 e in contrast the average azimuths of p axes for aftershocks northeast and southwest of the calaveras fault are n49 7 e and n37 3 e respectively by assuming that the earthquakes occur on preexisting cracks in response to a uniformly oriented regional stress field we are able to infer from the observed average slip directions an orientation for 1 the axis of maximum horizontal compression 63 80 from the local strike of the calaveras fault such a high angle orientation of 1 is incompatible with the classical andersonian model of strike slip faulting but is consistent with an alternate model in which a weak calaveras fault is driven by plate motion slightly convergent with respect to the san andreas fault system in central california if this inferred high angle uniform stress field is combined with the changes in the static stress field calculated with elastic dislocation theory for the 1984 morgan hill main shock the resulting stress field predicts most of the observed spatial pattern of the aftershocks and their fault plane solutions the orientations of the inferred aftershock slip planes are generally consstent with the fracture orientations predicted by the coulomb failure criterion areas with predicted increases in the coulomb failure function of only a few tenths of a megapascal correspond to areas of intense aftershock activity the invariance of focal mechanisms in the vicinity of the south end of the main shock rupture before and after the main shock suggests that the magnitude of compressive stress in this area is at least 10 mpa in addition to explaining a preponderance of the seismic observations of the aftershock sequence the presence of a predominantly fault normal compressive regional stress field accounts for the contemporary development of folds reverse faults and topographic relief observed throughout the central california coast ranges

internal structure of the dead sea leaky transform rift in relation to plate kinematics abstract the structures along the dead sea transform rift are related to the motions of the sinai and arabia plates which border it and to the irregularities of their boundaries the total slip was 105 km left lateral but the present structures were formed mainly during the last 40 km of slip which probably occurred in the plio pleistocene along the southern half of the transform the strike slip motion takes place on en echelon faults this produces rhomb shaped grabens or pull aparts which are sometimes composite and in which there is local crustal separation thus much of the transform is leaky these structures occur in a morpho tectonic rift valley delimited by normal faults which express a small component of transverse extension along a few segments the shape of the transform is such that lateral motion produces local transverse compression the geometric relations of the structures along the transform define an eulerian pole of relative plate motions at 32 8 n 22 6 e 0 5 the older motion was somewhat different and is described by a pole located about 5 west of the above then the component of transverse extension and crustal separation was much smaller than now while local transverse compression was more important the northern half of the dead sea transform has an irregular shape and the bordering plates did not remain rigid as lateral motion continued here transverse compression is often important

stress orientations from well bore breakouts in the coalinga region borehole breakouts are caused by unequal stress concentrations around a borehole resulting in shear failure of the borehole wall and creating hole elongation perpendicular to the maximum horizontal in situ stress breakouts in tertiary sedimentary rocks were identified in 10 holes in the west coalinga cantua creek and west haven oil fields in the western san joaquin valley the deeper and more reliable 1 5 to 3 7 km breakouts were oriented northwest indicating northeast compressive stress perpendicular to the major fold axes in the san joaquin valley and at a 70 90 angle to the major strike slip faults in the coast ranges this stress direction is consistent with a reverse slip component on northwest trending faults in the region and with the focal mechanisms reported for the may 1983 coalinga earthquake the existing literature on stress measurements in central and southern california indicates that on a regional scale the stress regime is transitional between thrust and strike slip faulting a hydraulic fracture test in the kettleman hills oil field at 3 km depth indicates that this stress regime exists in the upper crust near coalinga as well

stress induced borehole elongation a comparison between the four arm dipmeter and the borehole televiewer in the auburn geothermal well the nature and origin of borehole elongation recorded by the four arm dipmeter calipers is studied utilizing information obtained from hydraulic fracturing stress measurements and borehole televiewer data taken in a well located in auburn new york a preferred orientation n10 w s10 e 10 and a less prominant e w orientation of borehole elongation was observed on two runs of the dipmeter comparisons of borehole geometry determined using the televiewer and the dipmeter show that both tools give the same orientation of borehole elongtion provided that the zone of elongation is longer than 30 cm comparisons of dipmeter caliper data with orientation of in situ stress and natural fractures obtained from hydrofracturing tests and televiewer data show that the n10 w s10 e borehole elongations 1 are axisymmetric 2 are aligned with the minimum horizontal stress sh and 3 are not associated with natural fractures intersecting the well these elongations are interpreted as stress induced well bore breakouts the e w elongation direction is characterized by an asymmetric borehole cross section in thinly bedded rocks and is not caused by breakouts this asymmetric geometry can be discriminated from breakouts using the oriented electric measurements provided by the dipmeter this study demonstrates that the dipmeter can be used to determine the orientation of sh by mapping breakouts confirming the results of earlier less detailed studies and provides a firm basis for mapping regional stress patterns using existing dipmeter data

seismotectonics of the newport inglewood fault zone in the los angeles basin southern california the newport inglewood fault zone nif strikes northwest along the western margin of the los angeles basin in southern california the seismicity 1973 to 1985 of m l 2 5 that occurred within a 20 km wide rectangle centered on the nif extending from the santa monica fault in the north to newport beach in the south is analyzed a simultaneous full inversion scheme velest is used to invert for hypocentral parameters two velocity models and a set of station delays arrival time data from three quarry blasts are included to stabilize the inversion the first velocity model applies to stations located along the rim and outside the los angeles basin and is well resolved it is almost identical to the starting model which is the model routinely used by the cit usgs southern california seismic network for locating local earthquakes the second velocity model applies to stations located within the los angeles basin it shows significantly lower velocities down to depths of 12 to 16 km which is consistent with basement of catalina schist below the sediments in the western los angeles basin the distribution of relocated hypocenters shows an improved correspondence to mapped surface traces of late quaternary fault segments of the nif a diffuse trend of seismicity is observed along the inglewood fault from the dominguez hills across the baldwin hills to the santa monica fault in the north the seismicity adjacent to long beach however is offset 4 to 5 km to the east near the trace of the subsurface los alamitos fault the depth distribution of earthquakes along the nif shows clustering from 6 to 11 km depth which is similar to average seismogenic depths in southern california thirty nine single event focal mechanisms of small earthquakes 1977 to 1985 show mostly strike slip faulting with some reverse faulting along the north segment north of dominguez hills and some normal faulting along the south segment south of dominguez hills to newport beach the results of an inversion of the focal mechanism data for orientations of the principal stress axes and their relative magnitudes indicate that the minimum principal stress is vertical along the north segment while the intermediate stress is vertical along the south segment the maximum principal stress axis is oriented 10 to 25 east of north reverse faulting along the north segment indicates that a transition zone of mostly compressive deformation exists between the los angeles block and the central transverse ranges

microearthquake evidence for extension across the kane transform fault we report the results of a microearthquake experiment conducted in 1987 in the active transform portion of the kane fracture zone the kane is a slow slipping 25 mm yr large offset 150 km transform delineated by a pronounced transform valley the experiment site lies in the eastern half of the transform 40 km west of the eastern ridge transform intersection in a region of marked transform parallel topography the network consisted of 12 ocean bottom hydrophones and seismometers and extended for 25 km along the transform and 10 km in width spanning the transform valley and a narrow median ridge to the north hypocentral parameters were determined for 86 earthquakes epicenters within the network define a narrow transform parallel trend along the steep southern wall of the transform valley maximum focal depths increase from 6 to 9 km from east to west across the network significant activity was also detected outside the transform tectonized zone to the southeast this activity may be associated with the inside corner of the ridge transform intersection while to the north about 20 events occurred in 7 m y old crust in a region of ridge parallel bathymetry six focal mechanisms were obtained from p wave first motions for events within the transform valley the best constrained solutions for four earthquakes within the network show normal faulting on fault planes subparallel to the trend of the transform all the mechanisms indicate a tension axis perpendicular to the trend of the transform these results together with a significant historical record of large earthquakes near the experiment site lead us to conclude that the principal transform displacement zone was inactive during our experiment and that the activity we recorded is the result of extension in the adjacent lithosphere the observed focal mechanisms and the inference that the axis of least compressive stress is approximately perpendicular to the transform provide direct evidence that the transform fault is mechanically weak relative to the surrounding lithosphere potential sources of extension across the transform include thermal stress in the young oceanic lithosphere topographic loading a small component of plate divergence normal to the transform and northward motion of the asthenosphere relative to the surface plate

in situ stress orientation near the san andreas fault preliminary results to 2 1 km depth from the cajon pass scientific drillhole stress induced wellbore breakouts were analyzed in the cajon pass scientific drillhole 4 3km ne of the san andreas fault to determine the orientation of the principal horizontal stresses using borehole televiewer digitized data in the depth interval 1750 2115 m the mean orientation of the maximum horizontal stress is 073 the scatter in the orientation of breakouts is as much as 37 and variations occur with wavelengths of few hundred meters in this interval reflecting either true changes in stress orientation with depth or the variability of rock anisotropy all the measured orientations however result in left lateral shear stress resolved onto planes parallel to the san andreas fault contrary to its post miocene right lateral slip of 300 km the stress orientation is consistent however with reported left lateral displacement across the cleghorn fault 3 km northeast of and possibly subparallel to the san andreas near cajon pass since the pleistocene the cajon pass stress orientation may reflect the current state of stress across the san andreas fault in which case it should change prior to right lateral slip on this fault or a shallow local perturbation to the san andreas stress field in which case it should rotate couterclockwise with depth determination of the stress orientations at greater depths in the cajon pass drillhole will better sample the near field of the san andreas fault and help resolve this question

growth fault bend folding at southeast lost hills san joaquin valley california synsedimentary deformation has created complex structural and stratigraphic relationships along the west side of the san joaquin valley california this case study of lost hills anticline documents how a simple structural process fault bend folding results in complex growth stratigraphy lost hills anticline is a fault bend fold caused by a step in the lost hills thrust the thrust steps up to the northeast at 27 from a detachment at the base of the tertiary to an upper detachment in the reef ridge formation the lower and upper detachments are at 20 000 ft 6 km and 13 000 ft 4 km displacement on the lower detachment is approximately 4 mi 6 5 km folding consumes 1 2 mi 2 km and the remaining 2 8 mi 4 5 km continues northeast beneath the san joaquin va ley forward and back limb dips of 42 and 27 respectively are consistent with fault bend fold theory pliocene pleistocene sediments onlap a time transgressive unconformity on the northeast front limb but have uniform dip and thickness on the southwest back limb this characteristic growth fault bend fold geometry indicates basinal sediments rolled through an axial surface onto the back limb whereas contemporaneous sediments deposited above the front limb are undeformed basinal sediments onlapping the fold crest indicates fault slip is greater than ramp length onlapping growth sediments indicate folding began during deposition of the etchegoin formation 8 ma and continued to the late pleistocene or holocene corresponding to an average displacement rate on the lost hills thrust of 2 700 ft m y 820 m m y continuous burial of the fold during growth caused each material e physical point in the fold to be at its maximum depth of burial contours of equal density and seismic velocity are relatively flat so that the anticline causes little or no gravity anomaly and less than expected pullup in seismic time sections the geometry of growth sediments imaged on seismic lines indicates lost hills and adjacent anticlines grew by uniform displacement to the northeast with no significant rotation oblique convergence between the pacific and north american plates is manifested as synchronous but spatially separate transcurrent and compressive displacements thus lost hills anticline and perhaps other folds in the area are more appropriately described as compressive folds in a transpressive region than as transpressive folds duplicated lower tertiary strata beneath the lost hills kettleman hills trend are potential targets for petroleum exploration

orientational data on the state of stress in northeastern mexico as inferred from stress induced borehole elongations preferential elongation directions are presented from 46 subvertical wells in northeastern mexico from depth intervals ranging from 161 to 4 912 m the measurements document a remarkably consistent west east to northwest southeast direction of the contemporary least horizontal stress in the upper crust of this intraplate region in the regional neotectonic framework the data suggest that mexico north of the trans mexican volcanic belt is being stretched in west east to northwest southeast direction the measurements from the area of the laramide chihuahua and coahuila fold thrust belts define the southern extend of the basin and range rio grande rift stress province of the southwestern united states into northern mexico the least horizontal in situ stress directions recorded in the gulf coastal plain burgos and tampico misantla basins are oblique to the continental margin of the gulf of mexico but subparallel to the direction measured in the area of the basin and range rio grande rift stress province this suggests that the stress distribution in these basins is not mainly the result of gravitational loading as in the gulf coast stress province of the united states but is controlled by the same lithospheric stress system that characterizes the basin and range rio grande rift stress province this is also supported by the north south trending zone of oligocene quaternary alkaline volcanism that crosses the tampico misantla basin furthermore the data indicate that the active deformation of the mexican ridges fold belt east of the study area in the gulf of mexico cannot be caused by a compressional external tectonic load the direction of the least horizontal in situ stress measured in the area of the laramide sierra madre oriental fold thrust belt in hidalgo and san luis potosi states is consistent with that of the other zones however wellbore elongations were recorded less frequently and show a rather large circular variance which suggests that the minimum and maximum horizontal far field stresses are about equal in this area

groundwater waves in a coastal aquifer a new governing equation including vertical effects and capillarity groundwater waves that is water table fluctuations are a natural phenomenon in coastal aquifers they represent an important part of the interaction between the ocean and aquifer and affect the mass exchange between them this paper presents a new groundwater wave equation because it includes the effects of vertical flows and capillarity the new equation is applicable to both intermediate depth aquifers and high frequency waves compared with the wave equation derived by nielsen et al 1997 the present equation provides a closer representation of groundwater waves in particular it predicts high frequency water table fluctuations as observed in the field a validation of the new equation has been carried out by comparing the analytical solutions to it with predictions from direct simulations using the numerical model sutra the effects of various physical parameters and their relative importance are also discussed

tectonic analysis of the dead sea rift region since the late cretaceous based on mesostructures we have measured the orientations of small faults slickensides tectonic stylolites vein with secondary mineralization small folds and dikes in israel and sinai these structures are indicators of paleo stress or strain and provide the pattern of tectonic deformation data were collected at 130 stations most with tens of separate measurements most stations showed consistent deformation stations were located on exposures ranging from precambrian crystalline rocks to pleistocene sediments we have defined two tectonic stress fields each relatively uniform in both time and space one stress field with dominating maximum horizontal compression trending w to wnw in the late cretaceous to eocene rocks in the folds and plateaus west of the dead sea rift the second field with dominating horizontal extension trending e to ene in all rocks inside the rift and proximal thereto the first stress field is called the syrian arc stress and the second is called the dead sea stress a change in style of tectonic deformation which corresponds to the two stress fields is manifested also in the major structures in israel the late cretaceous to neogene deformation is characterized by long wavelength folds and monoclines whereas the neogene to recent deformation is characterized by normal and strike slip faults and volcanic activity

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

focal mechanisms and the state of stress on the san andreas fault in southern california focal mechanisms have been determined from p wave first motion polarities for 138 small to moderate 2 6 m 4 3 earthquakes that occurred within 10 km of the surface trace of the san andreas fault in southern california between 1978 and 1985 on the basis of these mechanisms the southern san andreas fault has been divided into five segments with different stress regimes earthquakes in the fort tejon segment show oblique reverse sup on east west and northwest striking faults the mojave segment has earthquakes with oblique reverse and right lateral strikesup motion on northwest strikes the san bernardino segment has normal faulting earthquakes on north south striking planes while the banning segment has reverse strike sup and normal faulting events all occurring in the same area the earthquakes in the indio segment show strike slip and oblique normal faulting on northwest to north south striking planes these focal mechanism data have been inverted to determine how the stresses acting on the san andreas fault in southern california vary with position along strike of the fault one of the principal stresses is vertical in all of the regions the vertical stress is the minimum principal stress in fort tejon and mojave the intermediate principal stress in banning and indio and the maximum principal stress in san bernardino the orientations of the horizontal principal stresses also vary between the regions the trend of the maximum horizontal stress rotates over 35 from n15 w at fort tejon to n20 at indio except for the san bernardino segment the trend of the maximum horizontal stress is at a constant angle of about 65 to the local strike of the san andreas fault implying a weak fault the largest change in the present stress state occurs at the end of the rupture zone of the 1857 fort tejon earthquake it appears that the 1857 rupture ended when it propagated into an area of low stress amplitude possibly caused by the 15 angle between the strikes of the san jacinto and san andreas faults the strong correlation between present state of stress and segmentation in previous earthquakes suggests that the stress state is important in controlling rupture propagation

well bore breakouts and in situ stress the detailed cross sectional shape of stress induced well bore breakouts has been studied using specially processed ultrasonic borehole televiewer data we show breakout shapes for a variety of rock types and introduce a simple elastic failure model which explains many features of the observations both the observations and calculations indicate that the breakouts define relatively broad and flat curvilinear surfaces which enlarge the borehole in the direction of minimum horizontal compression this work supports the hypothesis that breakouts result from shear failure of the rock where the compressive stress concentration around the well bore is greatest and that breakouts can be used to determine the orientation of the horizontal principal stresses in situ

tectonic analysis of fault slip data sets using data that include the direction and the sense of motion on individual fault surfaces determined by slickenside lineations it is possible to reconstruct reduced stress tensors that correspond to the orientation of stress axes and to the ratio 2 3 1 3 between principal stress values 1 2 3 compression being positive no assumption is made concerning the orientation of fault planes relative to stress axes so that reactived faults are taken into account as well as newly created ones qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis of fault slip data were developed during the last 10 years the practical limitation of the methods and the necessity for critical field observations are emphasized these methods can be applied to focal mechanisms of earthquakes a more complex analysis of heterogeneous data sets involving an iterative separation of different stress systems is also discussed this analysis enables one to distinguish successive faulting events careful qualitative study in the field is in all cases essential

sinistral strike slip motion on the dead sea rift confirmation from new magnetic data new aeromagnetic data from jordan provide information about basement structures that were previously unknown large east west magnetic anomalies are truncated by the dead sea rift comparison of these data with aeromagnetic data from west of the rift strongly suggests that these anomalies have undergone slightly more than 100 km of left lateral offset this is the same amount of offset concluded from several studies of surface bedrock geology offset of magnetic anomalies provides confirmation of the total amount of offset but no sense of timing or the polyphase history of motion suggested by other studies

seismic history and seismotectonics of the sunda arc historic records of the last 300 years reveal two great interplate earthquakes 1833 mw 8 1861 mw 8 8 which ruptured major segments of the sumatra fore arc in western indonesia a significant percentage of interplate slip along this portion of the plate boundary appears to occur seismically the ends of these rupture zones are coincident with clusters of large ms 7 and moderate 6 ms 7 shocks and with heterogeneities in the plate interface as inferred from geologic and geophysical data the northern extent of the 1833 rupture zone is coincident with a group of moderate and large earthquakes a structural arch in the fore arc and a fracture zone on the subducted plate the southern portion is coincident with a very prominent cluster and the along strike extension of a sediment filled trough on the subducted plate prior to this study sumatra was characterized as relatively aseismic as inferred from the lack of great earthquakes in the instrumental record of this century java and the lesser sunda islands had major ms 6 earthquakes in the historic record but none are of the same magnitude as the great events near sumatra there is no clear evidence that shocks in the java fore arc were interplate events yet geophysical data indicate recent uplift of the trench slope break and a change in strike of the trench axis where the northernmost flank of the roo rise a prominent bathymetrie high appears to be interacting with the fore arc this feature was formed at a ridge crest and is more buoyant and thus more difficult to subduct than the surrounding seafloor there is no increase in seismicity associated with this tectonism however that may indicate a lack of contact between the crystalline portions of the plates at this time we infer that a majority of slip on the plate interface near java occurs aseismically the variation in occurrence of great interplate earthquakes along the sunda arc may be interpreted in terms of a model that attributes variation in interplate coupling to the age of the subducted lithosphere great interplate earthquakes occur near sumatra where the age of the youngest crust is 46 ma the characteristics of the sunda arc and analogies with pacific arcs imply that the entire length of sumatra has the potential to produce great thrust earthquakes its seismic potential should be considered high as there has been no recurrence of the great events of 1833 and 1861 in contrast no such events have been reported off java and the lesser sunda islands where the oldest crust is 152 ma the plate interface near java and the lesser sunda islands should be considered to have low seismic potential

seismicity and active compressional tectonics in santa monica bay southern california during 1973 1986 the seismicity in santa monica bay consisted of an average of four events per year of m l 2 5 in addition to the 1979 malibu m l 5 0 mainshock aftershock sequence the 1979 sequence ruptured a north dipping thrust fault at 10 15 km depth beneath the bay a diffuse distribution of seismicity extends across the bay from the terminus of the palos verdes fault to point dume two thirds of the single event focal mechanisms of 36 events that are located within the bay show mostly thrust or reverse faulting on west to west northwest striking planes a third of the focal mechanisms exhibit strike slip faulting on north to north northwest striking planes a stress inversion of the focal mechanism data shows that the maximum principal stress is oriented n13 e in a horizontal plane and the minimum principal stress is oriented n102 e and plunging 47 hence the tectonics in santa monica bay are dominated by compression with thrust reverse and strike slip faulting the coexistence of thrust and strike slip faults suggests that the bay is not a part of the peninsular ranges terrane but forms a transition zone that accommodates the change from strike slip in the peninsular ranges to the south to reverse faulting in the transverse ranges to the north mapped anticlines and the previously unrecognized thrust faults beneath the bay form two fold and thrust belts that present additional seismic hazards to los angeles and the southern california coastal zone through seismic shaking and possible generation of small tsunamis