Seismic Constraints and 

Coulomb Stress Changes of 

a Blind Thrust Fault 

System, 2: Northridge, 

California 

By Ross S. Stein1 and Jian Lin2

2006 

Open-File Report 2006–1158 

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif. 

2 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass. 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

U.S. Geological Survey
2 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary 

U.S. Geological Survey 

P. Patrick Leahy, Acting Director 

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 2006

Revised and reprinted: 2006 

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Suggested citation:

Stein, R.S., and Lin, J., 2006, Seismic constraints and Coulomb stress changes of a blind 

thrust fault system, 2: Northridge, California: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 

2006-1158, 17 p. [available on the World Wide Web at URL 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1158/ ]. 

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Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the 

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3 

Summary 

We review seismicity, surface faulting, and Coulomb stress changes associated with the 1994 

Northridge, California, earthquake. All of the observed surface faulting is shallow, extending 

meters to tens of meters below the surface. Relocated aftershocks reveal no seismicity shallower 

than 2 km depth. Although many of the aftershocks lie along the thrust fault and its up-dip 

extension, there are also a significant number of aftershocks in the core of the gentle anticline 

above the thrust, and elsewhere on the up-thrown block. These aftershocks may be associated 

with secondary ramp thrusts or flexural slip faults at a depth of 2-4 km. The geological structures 

typically associated with a blind thrust fault, such as anticlinal uplift and an associated syncline, 

are obscured and complicated by surface thrust faults associated with the San Fernando fault 

that overly the Northridge structures. Thus the relationship of the geological structure and 

topography to the underlying thrust fault is much more complex for Northridge than it is for the 

1983 Coalinga, California, earthquake. We show from a Coulomb stress analysis that secondary 

surface faulting, diffuse aftershocks, and triggered sequences of moderate-sized mainshocks, are 

expected features of moderate-sized blind thrust earthquakes. 

1. Analysis of surface faulting 

The 1994 M=6.7 Northridge, California, earthquake struck on a south-dipping blind thrust fault 

at 17 km depth, and ruptured to within 6 km of the ground surface (Fig. 1) [Hauksson et al., 1995]. 

Twenty-three years before, in 1971, the M=6.7 San Fernando earthquake struck on a 

north-dipping, surface-cutting fault, and so the two events appear closely related (Fig. 2) [Mori et 

al., 1995; Tsutsumi and Yeats, 1999]. The 1994 earthquake produced a vigorous aftershock 

sequence, but none of the mapped active surface thrust or strike-slip faults ruptured at the 

surface. However, four isolated sites of concentrated secondary surface rupture were observed 

within ~22 km of the epicenter [Hecker et al., 1995; Catchings, et al., 1998; Rymer et al., 2001] 

(Fig. 1). 

Mapping of surface faults and associated Holocene alluvial deposits, together with shallow 

seismic reflection profiling, geodetic leveling surveys and paleoseismic trenching, indicates that 

all of the faulting is shallow and unlikely to penetrate deeper than several tens of meters [Hecker 

et al., 1995; Catchings et al., 1998; Rymer et al., 2001]. The central (Granada Hills-Mission Hills) 

area of surface faulting involved small displacement cracks that reflect control by near-surface 

conditions. Shallow mass movement in stream deposits and mass wasting on gentle slopes 

appears to have been triggered by seismic shaking. 
4 

Compressional fractures found along the south side of Potrero Canyon (Fig. 3, the northernmost 

site) are thought to be shallow surficial features developed in or slightly below the soil layer 

[Rymer et al., 2001]. Trench exposures [Rymer et al., 1995] revealed that these compressional 

fractures represented slip in the upper 50 cm of sediment and were antithetic to larger, more 

deeply extending extensional fractures. Extensional fractures were traced to depths of greater 

than 6 m without indication of slip-plane shallowing (Fig. 4) [Rymer et al., 1995]. Crude field 

estimates of the vertical, compressional, and extensional components of the slip are about 1 m, 

0.2 m, and 0.3 m, respectively [Rymer et al., 2001]. 

We conclude from this review that secondary surface cracking can be expected at least as far as 

25 km away from a M=6.7 blind thrust earthquake, but that such faulting need not extend more 

than about several meters below the surface. 

2. Analysis of seismicity and fault structure 

In general, blind thrust faults tend to fold the overlying sediments into an anticline that grows in 

amplitude with cumulative fault slip, and grows in wavelength with increase in the down-dip 

width of the thrust fault [Stein and King, 1984; Stein and Yeats, 1989]. This simple relationship is 

complicated at Northridge by the adjacent San Fernando fault, which has thrust sedimentary 

strata over and deformed the Northridge anticline [Yeats and Huftile, 1995]. Nevertheless, several 

recent attempts to relocate the aftershocks of the Northridge earthquake have revealed new 

features of the earthquake process [Carena and Suppe, 2002; Shearer et al., 2005]. Carena and Suppe

[2002] plotted a subset of the most clustered earthquakes in a 3D viewer and found new features 

of the blind fault geometry, including a lateral ramp, or corrugation, in the rupture surface (Figs. 

5c and 6), and a slightly listric shape to the fault in cross-section (Fig. 5d). There are also a 

significant number of clustered aftershocks at shallow depth on the up-thrown block (orange to 

red shocks in Fig. 5d). 

There are some minor horizontal alignments of the shallow seismicity; these could be associated 

with flexural slip faulting or could indicate the presence of shallow decollement fault surfaces 

[Baldwin et al., 2000]. Carena and Suppe (2002) used oil industry seismic reflection profiles and 

well logs to plot seismicity in association with geologic structure. The locations of their three 

cross-sections are shown in Fig. 7, and the sections are reproduced here in Figs. 8-10. In the 

central cross-section (Fig. 8), a possible high-angle reverse fault is visible at 4-8 km depth beneath 

the Pleistocene deposits and the anticline immediately above the Northridge thrust is very flat 

and immature, suggesting cumulative fault slip of no more than about 1 km. In the easternmost 
5 

cross-section (Fig. 9), no seismicity extends shallower than 3.5 km depth, but off-fault seismicity 

is seen in the core of the anticline, similar to aftershocks of the 1983 Coalinga earthquake [Eaton, 

1990], suggestive of high-angle reverse faults in the core of the anticline. The westernmost 

cross-section (Fig. 10) includes the shallowest off-fault seismicity. Carena and Suppe (2002) 

interpret this as highlighting a fault-propagation fold ramping from 5 km to 2 km depth beneath 

the San Fernando Valley. But there is no direct evidence for such a flat-lying fault. They also 

interpret the continuation of the Northridge thrust trend beneath the East Ventura basin as a 

normal fault, but this is not validated on the basis of focal mechanisms. 

We conclude that the Northridge fault is immature and that the anticlinal structure is obscured 

by the older San Fernando-Sierra Madre thrust system that extends to the surface. There is a 

concentration of aftershocks in the core of the anticline on the upthrown block. To the west of the 

rupture, there are aftershocks that reach within 2 km of the ground surface. These could be 

caused by flexural slip faulting, or perhaps by shallow ramp thrusts. 

3. Analysis of the mechanics of earthquake triggering 

Over the past decade, we have carried out extensive analysis of stress transfer, focusing on how 

one earthquake can trigger the next by the transfer of stress [King et al., 1994; Stein et al., 1994; 

Stein, 1999; Lin and Stein, 2004]. This framework offers insights into how blind thrust faults differ 

from surface-cutting thrusts in the transfer of stress to the shallow crust. 

Coulomb stress triggering calculations suggest that blind thrust faults promote failure in the 

surrounding crust to a much greater extent than surface-cutting faults (Fig. 11). The principal 

consequence is that blind thrusts should produce more diffuse and distributed aftershock 

sequences, and they should be able to trigger slip on shallow secondary reverse faults to a much 

greater degree than surface-cutting thrust events. Such a relationship is seen among most blind 

thrust earthquakes [Ekström et al., 1992; Stein and Ekström, 1992; Lin and Stein, 2004]. When 

applied to the Northridge earthquake, this understanding suggests that it is possible that the 

observed surface faulting shown in Figs. 1 and 3 was promoted by stress transferred to the 

surface, as seen in Fig. 12. 

When the Coulomb stress is resolved at the ground surface, two large lobes of stress increase are 

evident, and all of the observed secondary faulting falls into these lobes (Fig. 13). However, this 

calculation assumes that the crustal stiffness is maintained to the surface. Because sedimentary 
6 

basins are likely much more compliant, some of the high stress would result in low strain. Such 

complications should be included in future model investigation. 

A fundamental feature of blind thrust faulting is the stress transfer along strike that leads to 

successive earthquake sequences or large off-fault aftershocks. M≤6.8 blind thrust faults tend to 

be square in aspect ratio; in other words, their length is similar to their width [Lettis et al., 1997]. 

Such short faults are highly efficient at increasing the stress beyond the fault ends along strike, 

whereas long faults increase the stress beyond the ends only slightly more [Lin and Stein, 2004] 

(Fig. 14). In contrast, the region of stress drop is much larger for the long fault. This means that 

M≤6.8 blind fault earthquakes are more prone to trigger successive earthquakes on adjacent fault 

segments than are M>7 events, which tend to be much longer along strike in comparison to their 

width (Fig. 14). This suggests that the moderate size events like the 1994 Northridge earthquake 

are capable of promoting further moderate size events in the surrounding crust. 

Conclusion A key finding of this study is that while secondary surface faulting can occur 

within ~25 km of a moderate-size blind thrust mainshock, little if any of this faulting appears to 

extend beneath a depth of 10 m. While most aftershocks are associated with the main Northridge 

fault rupture, shallow seismicity is also seen in the core of the anticline and elsewhere on the 

up-thrown block, extending no shallower than 2 km depth. The geological structure as revealed 

by oil well logs and seismic reflection profiles is not simply related to the Northridge thrust fault 

at depth because of near-by surface thrust faults and possible ramp thrust and decollement faults 

in the uppermost 4 km. Coulomb stress analysis suggests that blind thrust faults promote failure 

in the surrounding crust to a much greater extent than surface-cutting faults, thus promoting 

zones of diffuse aftershocks. The observed surface faulting associated with the 1994 Northridge 

quake could partly be a consequence of stress transfer to the surface. 

Acknowledgments. We thank Suzanne Hecker and Michael Rymer for constructive reviews. 

This article is based on a project report to the Central Research Institute of Electric Power 

Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, Sub-Contract Order Number 10504201.
7 

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8 

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9 

Figure 1. Seismicity, areas of secondary surface rupture (ground cracking), and the principal 

surface of blind faulting associated with the 1994 M=6.7 Northridge earthquake [Hodgkinson et al., 

1996]. Red faults ruptured in the 1971 M=6.7 San Fernando earthquake. 

Figure 2. Relationship between the Northridge slip surface (brown) and the 1971 San Fernando 

slip surface (blue) [Carena and Suppe, 2002]. Depth contours are shown on slip surfaces. 
10 

Figure 3. Distribution of secondary surface rupture (short yellow lines) based on [Hodgkinson et 

al., 1996]. 

Figure 4. Detailed surface rupture map in the Potero Canyon area [Rymer et al., 2001]. The sense 

of slip indicates that the canyon floor has subsided relative to its walls. Nearly all of the faults are 

at bedrock-alluvium contacts, indicating superficial faulting. 
11 

Figure 5. Clustered aftershocks with view rotated to see planar alignments [Carena and Suppe, 

2002]. 
12 

Figure 6. Modeled Northridge fault plane [Carena and Suppe, 2002]. The lateral ramp in the fault 

is visible in the top right panel. Slip from seismic and geodetic data is shown in the lower panels. 
13 

Figure 7. Structural contours on the Northridge rupture surface as interpreted from seismicity 

data, together with the three cross-sections I-III shown in Figs. 8-10 [Carena and Suppe, 2002]. 

Figure 8. Few shallow aftershocks are seen in the central cross-section [Carena and Suppe, 2002]. 

A possible high-angle reverse fault is visible above 4 km depth separating Pleistocene from 

Miocene deposits (top center). Note as well that the anticline immediately above the Northridge 

thrust (represented by the uppermost gray dot-dashed line) is very flat and immature, 

suggesting cumulative fault slip of no more than about 1 km. 
14 

Figure 9. No seismicity extends shallower than 3.5 km depth in this easternmost cross-section 

[Carena and Suppe, 2002]. However, off-fault seismicity is seen in the core of the anticline, similar 

to aftershocks of the 1983 Coalinga earthquake [Eaton, 1990], that we ascribe to high-angle 

reverse faults in the core of the anticline. 

Figure 10. The westernmost cross-section includes the shallowest off-fault seismicity. Carena and 

Suppe [2002] interpret this as highlighting a fault-propagation fold ramping from 5 km to 2 km 

depth beneath the San Fernando Valley (heavy dashed line). But there is no direct evidence for 

this feature. They also interpret the continuation of the Northridge thrust trend at 3-6 km depth 

beneath the East Ventura basin as a normal fault, but this is not validated by focal mechanisms. 
15 

Figure 11. Cross-sections of the Coulomb stress changes associated with a 45°-dipping thrust 

fault with 2.5 m of slip [Lin and Stein, 2004]. In (a), the fault cuts the earth surface as in the 1971 

M=6.7 San Fernando earthquake, and stress is dropped at almost the entire upper 10 km in the 

surrounding crust. In (b), the fault is blind, similar to the 1994 M=6.7 Northridge shock, and 

large near-surface sites of Coulomb stress increase occur. In (c), the near-surface sites of stress 

transfer are largely removed by slip on shallow, rootless secondary faults [Lin and Stein, 2004]. 
16 

Figure 12. Cross sections of Coulomb stress changes associated with the Northridge earthquake 

[Stein et al., 1994]. Off-fault aftershocks and sites of secondary surface faulting generally 

correspond to the Coulomb stress change resolved on optimally-oriented thrust faults. N-CP is 

Northridge-Canoga Park; GH is Granada Hills (top panel); PC is Potero Canyon (bottom panel). 

The model parameters are 41.6°S dip, 5.84-km burial depth, 10.3-km down-dip width, 8.1-km 

length, 100° strike, 3.52-m uniform slip, and M0=0.9 x 1026 dyne-cm. This model is based on 

geodetic observations of Hudnut et al. [1996]. 

Figure 13. Calculated Coulomb stress change at the ground surface associated with slip on the 

blind thrust fault in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Sites of secondary surface faulting are 

white; they are shown in more detail in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3. 
17 

Figure 14. Map view of Coulomb stress changes for 2 m of slip imposed on a short (a) and long 

(b) blind thrust fault. The short fault produces nearly as much off-fault stress increases beyond 

the ends of the rupture (red areas) as does the long fault, but the long fault produces much larger 

zones of stress decrease [Lin and Stein, 2004].