Mechanical deformation model of the western United States instantaneous strain-rate field

Geophysical Journal International

Volumn 167, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 421-444

  Pollitz, Fred F ^b   Vergnolle, Mathilde ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LUXEMBOURG   (Luxembourg)

^b U S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY   (United States)

Author keywords

Crustal deformation; GPS; Visco elasticity

Indexed keywords

CRUSTAL DEFORMATION; DEFORMATION MECHANISM; FAULT GEOMETRY; FAULT SLIP; GPS; NORTH AMERICAN PLATE; PACIFIC PLATE; PLATE BOUNDARY; PLATE TECTONICS; SAN ANDREAS FAULT; STRAIN RATE; SUBDUCTION ZONE;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33749333128     PISSN: 0956540X     EISSN: 1365246X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03019.x     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. Altamimi, Z., Sillard, P. & Boucher, C., 2002. ITRF2000: A new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame for earth science applications, J. geophys. Res., 107, ETG2-1-ETG2-19.
2. Anderson, G., Agnew, D.C. & O, J.H., 2003. Salton Trough regional deformation estimated from combined trilateration and survey-mode GPS data, Bull. geol. Soc. Am., 93, 2402-2414.
3. Argus, D.F. & Gordon, R.G., 2001. Present tectonic motion across the Coast Ranges and San Andreas fault system in central California, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 113, 1580-1592.
4. Atwater, B. & Hemphill-Haley, E., 1997. Recurrence intervals for great earthquakes of the past 3500 years at northern Willapa Bay, Washington, USGS Prof. Pap., 1576.
5. Bawden, G., 2001. Source parameters for the 1952 Kern County earthquake, California: A joint inversion of leveling and triangulation observations, J. geophys. Res., 106, 771-785.
6. Beanland, S. & Clark, M., 1994. The Owens Valley Fault Zone, eastern California, and surface faulting associated with the 1872 earthquake, USGS Prof. Pap., 1982.
7. Bell, J.W., dePolo, C.M., Ramelli, A.R., Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. & Meyer, C., 1999. Surface faulting and paleoseismic history of the 1932 Cedar Mountain earthquake area, west-central Nevada, and implications for modern tectonics of the Walker Lane, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 111, 791-807.
8. Bennett, R.A., Davis, J.L. & Wernicke, B.P., 1999. Present-day pattern of Cordilleran deformation in the western United States, Geology, 27, 371-373.
9. Benz, H.M., Zandt, G. & Oppenheimer, D., 1993. Lithospheric structure of northern (c)alifornia from teleseismic images of the upper mantle, J. geophys. Res., 97, 4791-4807.
10. Bills, B.G., Currey, D.R. & Marshall, G.A., 1994. Viscosity estimates for the crust and upper mantle from patterns of lacustrine shoreline deformation in the Eastern Great Basin, J. geophys. Res., 99 (B11), 22059-22086.
11. Caskey, S., Wesnousky, S., Zhang, P. & Slemmons, D., 1996. Trace faulting of the 1954 Fairview Peak (m s 7.2) and Dixie Valley (m s 6.8) earthquakes, Central Nevada, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 86, 761-787.
12. Chang, W.-L. & Smith, R., 2002. Integrated seismic-hazard snalysis of the Wasatch front, Utah, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 92, 1904-1922.
13. d'Alessio, M., Johanson, I., Bürgmann, R., Schmidt, D. & Murray, M., 2005. Slicing up the San Francisco Bay Area: Block kinematics and fault slip rates from GPS-derived surface velocities, J. geophys. Res., 110, B06403, doi:.
14. DeMets, C. & Dixon, T.H., 1999. 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, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 1921-1924.
15. Deng, J., Gurnis, M., Kanamori, H. & Hauksson, E., 1998. Viscoelastic flow in the lower crust after the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake, Science, 282, 1689-1692.
16. DePolo, C., Anderson, J., DePolo, D. & Price, J., 1997. Earthquake occurrence in the Reno-Carson City urban corridor, Seismol. Res. Lett., 68, 401-412.
17. Dixon, J., Dixon, T., Bell, D. & Malservisi, R., 2004. Lateral variation in upper mantle viscosity: Role of water, Earth planet. Sci. Lett., 222, 451-467.
18. Dixon, T. et al., 2002. Seismic cycle and rheological effects on estimation of present-day slip rates for the Agua Blanca and San Miguel-Vallecitos faults, northern Baja California, Mexico, J. geophys. Res., 107, doi:.
19. Dixon, T., Norabuena, E. & Hotaling, L., 2003. Paleoseismology and Global Positioning System: Earthquake-cycle effects and geodetic versus geologic fault slip rates in the eastern California shear zone, Geology, 31, 55-58.
20. Dixon, T.H., Miller, M., Farina, F., Wang, H. & Johnson, D., 2000. Present-day motion of the Sierra Nevada block and some tectonic implications for the Basin and Range province, North American Cordillera, Tectonics, 19, 1-24.
21. England, P. & McKenzie, D.P., 1982. A thin viscous sheet model for continental deformation, Geophys. J. R. astr. Soc., 70, 295-321.
22. Flesch, L.M., Holt, W.E., Haines, A.J. & Shen-Tu, B., 2000. Dynamics of the Pacific-North America plate boundary in the Western United States, Science, 287, 834-836.
23. Freed, A. & Bürgmann, R., 2004. Evidence of powerlaw flow in the Mojave Desert mantle, Nature, 430, 548-551.
24. Friedrich, A., Wernicke, B.P., Niemi, N.A., Bennett, R.A. & Davis, J.L., 2003. Comparison of geodetic and geologic data from the Wasatch region, Utah, and implications for the spectral character of Earth deformation at periods of ten to ten million years, J. geophys. Res., 108, doi:.
25. Fumal, T., Rymer, M. & Seitz, G., 2002a. Timing of large earthquakes since A.D. 800 on the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas fault zone at Thousand Palms Oasis, near Palm Springs, California, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 92, 2841-2860.
26. Fumal, T., Weldon, R., II, Biasi, G., Dawson, T., Seitz, G., Frost, W. & Schwartz, D., 2002b. Evidence for large earthquakes on the San Andreas fault at the Wrightwood, California, paleoseismic site: A.D. 500 to Present, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 92, 2726-2760.
27. Grant, L. & Sieh, K., 1993. Stratigraphic evidence for seven meters of dextral slip on the San Andreas fault during the 1857 earthquake in the Carrizo Plain, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 83, 619-635.
28. Hammond, W.C. & Thatcher, 2004. Contemporary tectonic deformation of the Basin and Range province, western United States: 10 years of observation with the Global Positioning System, J. geophys. Res., 109, B08403, doi:.
29. Hammond, W.C., Thatcher, W. & Blewitt, G., 2004. Crustal deformation across the Sierra Nevada-Northern Walker Lane, Basin and Range Transition, Western Unied States measured with GPS, 2000-2004, EOS, Trans. Am. geophys. Un., 85 (47), Fall Meet. Suppl., abstract G31D-07.
30. Hetland, E.A. & Hager, B.H., 2003. Postseismic relaxation across the Central Nevada Seismic Zone, J. geophys. Res., 108, doi:.
31. Hirabayashi, C.K., Rockwell, T., Wesnousky, S., Stirling, M. & Suarez-Vidal, F., 1996. A neotectonic study of the San Miguel-Vallecitos fault, Baja California, Mexico, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 86, 1770-1783.
32. Humphreys, E.D. & Dueker, K.G., 1994. Western US upper mantle structure, J. geophys. Res., 99, 9615-9634.
33. Hyndman, R. & Wang, K., 1995. The rupture zone of Cascadia great earthquakes from current deformation and the thermal regime, J. geophys. Res., 100, 22133-22154.
34. James, T., Clague, J., Wang, K. & Hutchinson, I., 2001. Postglacial rebound at the northern cascadia subduction zone, Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 1527-1541.
35. Kaufmann, G. & Amelung, F., 2000. Reservoir-induced deformation and continental rheology in the vicinity of Lake Mead, Nevada, J. geophys. Res., 105, 16341-16358.
36. King, G., Oppenheimer, D. & Amelung, F., 1994. Block versus continuum deformation in the western United States, Earth planet. Sci. Lett., 128, 55-64.
37. Lisowski, M., Savage, J. & Prescott, W., 1991. The velocity field along the San Andreas fault in central and southern California, J. geophys. Res., 96, 8369-8389.
38. Liu, P. & Bird, P., 2002. North America plate is driven westward by lower mantle flow, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 2164, doi:.
39. Lowry, A.R., Ribe, N.M. & Smith, R.B., 2000. Dynamic elevation of the Cordillera, western United States, J. geophys. Res., 105, 23371-23390.
40. Lynch, J. & Richards, M., 2001. Finite element models of stress orientations in well-developed strike-slip fault zones: Implications for the distribution of lower crustal strains, J. geophys. Res., 106, 26707-26730.
41. Malservesi, R., Dixon, T., La Femina, P. & Furlong, K., 2003. Holocene slip rate of the Wasatch fault zone, Utah, from geodetic data: Earthquake cycle effects, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, doi:.
42. Matsu'ura, M., Jackson, D.D. & Cheng, A., 1986. Dislocation model for aseismic crustal deformation at Hollister, California, J. geophys. Res., 91, 12661-12674.
43. McCaffrey, R., 2005. Block kinematics of the Pacific - North America plate boundary in the southwestern US from inversion of GPS, seismological, and geologic data, J. geophys. Res., 110, B12406, doi:.
44. McCaffrey, R., Long, M.D., Goldfinger, C., Zwick, P.C., Nabelek, J.L., Johnson, C.K. & Smith, C., 2000. Rotation and plate locking at the southern Cascadia subduction zone, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 3117-3120.
45. McGill, S. et al., 2002. Paleoseismology of the San Andreas fault at Plunge Creek, near San Bernardino, California, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 92, 2803-2840.
46. Meade, B. & Hager, B., 2004. Viscoelastic deformation for a clustered earthquake cycle, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:.
47. Meade, B. & Hager, B., 2005. Block models of crustal motion in southern California constrained by GPS, measurements, J. geophys. Res., 110, doi:.
48. Mériaux, A.S., Ryerson, F.J., Tapponnier, P., Van der Woerd, J., Finkel, R.C., Xu, X., Xu, Z. & Caffee, M.W., 2004. Rapid slip along the central Altyn Tagh Fault: Morphochronologic evidence from Cherchen He and Sulamu Tagh, J. geophys. Res., 109 (B06401), doi:.
49. Nishimura, T. & Thatcher, W., 2003. Rheology of the lithosphere inferred from postseismic uplift following the 1959 hebgen lake earthquake, J. geophys. Res., 108,.
50. Peltzer, G., Crampe, F., Hensley, S. & Rosen, P., 2001. Transient strain accumulation and fault interaction in the Eastern California Shear Zone, Geology, 29, 975-978.
51. Pollitz, F.F., 2001. Viscoelastic shear zone model of a strike-slip earthquake cycle, J. geophys. Res., 106, 26541-26560.
52. Pollitz, F.F., 2003a. Transient rheology of the uppermost mantle beneath the Mojave Desert, California, Earth planet. Sci. Lett., 215, 89-104.
53. Pollitz, F.F., 2003b. The relationship between the instantaneous velocity field and the rate of moment release in the lithosphere, Geophys. J. Int., 153, 595-208.
54. Pollitz, F.F., 2003c. Postseismic relaxation theory on a laterally heterogeneous viscoelastic model, Geophys.J. Int., 155, 57-78.
55. Pollitz, F.F. & Nyst, M.C.J., 2004. A physical model for strain accumulation in the San Francisco Bay Region, Geophys. J. Int., 160, 302-317.
56. Pollitz, F.F., Peltzer, G. & Bürgmann, R., 2000. Mobility of the continental mantle: Evidence from postseismic geodetic observations following the 1992 Landers earthquake, J. geophys. Res., 105, 8035-8054.
57. Pollitz, F.F., Wicks, C. & Thatcher, W., 2001. Mantle flow beneath a continental strike-slip fault: Postseismic deformation after the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake, Science, 293, 1814-1818.
58. Prescott, W.H., Savage, J.C., Svarc, J.L. & Manaker, D., 2001. Deformation across the Pacific-North America plate boundary near San Francisco, California, J. geophys. Res., 106, 6673-6682.
59. Provost, A.-S. & Chéry, J., 2006. Relation between effective friction and fault slip rate across the Northern San Andreas fault system, in Analogue and Numerical Modelling of Crustal-Scale Processes, GSL Special Publications, Bath, UK.
60. Roy, M. & Royden, L., 2000. Crustal rheology and faulting at strike-slip plate boundaries (1): An analytic model, J. geophys. Res., 105, 5599-5613.
61. Runnerstrom, E.E., Grant, L.B., Arrowsmith, J.R., Rhodes, D.D. & Stone, E.M., 2002. Displacement across the Cholame Segment of the San Andreas Fault between 1855 and 1893 from cadastral surveys, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 92, 2659-2669.
62. Savage, J., Simpson, R.W. & Murray, M.H., 1998. Strain accumulation rates in the San Francisco Bay area, 1972-1998, J. geophys. Res., 103, 18039-18051.
63. Savage, J.C., 1983. Strain accumulation in western United States, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 368, 11-43.
64. Savage, J.C. & Prescott, W.H., 1978. Asthenospheric readjustment and the earthquake cycle, J. geophys. Res., 83, 3369-3376.
65. Savage, J., Svarc, J. & Prescott, W., 1999a. Strain accumulation at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, 1983-1998, J. geophys. Res., 104, 17627-17631.
66. Savage, J.C., Svarc, J.L. & Prescott, W.H., 1999b. Geodetic estimates of fault slip rates in the San Francisco Bay area, J. geophys. Res., 104, 4995-5002.
67. Savage, J.C., Gan, W. & Svarc, J.L., 2001a. Strain accumulation and rotation in the Eastern California Shear Zone, J. geophys. Res., 106, 21995-22008.
68. Savage, J.C., Svarc, J.L. & Prescott, W.H., 2001b. Strain accumulation near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, J. geophys. Res., 106, 16483-16488.
69. Savage, J.C., Gan, W., Prescott, W.H. & Svarc, J.L., 2004. Strain accumulation across the Coast Ranges at the latitude of San Francisco, J. geophys. Res., 109, doi:.
70. Sharp, R.V., 1981. Variable rates of Late Quaternary strike-slip on the San Jacinto fault zone, J. geophys. Res., 86, 1754-1762.
71. Shen, Z.-K., Jackson, D. & Ge, B., 1996. Crustal deformation across and beyond the Los Angeles Basin from geodetic measurements, J. geophys. Res., 101, 27957-27980.
72. Sieh, K., 1978. Slip along the San Andreas fault associated with the Great 1857 earthquake, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 68, 1421-1428.
73. Sieh, K., 1984. Lateral offsets and revised dates of large prehistoric earthquakes at Pallett Creek, southern california, J. geophys. Res., 89, 7641-7670.
74. Sieh, K.E. & Williams, P., 1990. Behavior of the southernmost San Andreas fault during the past 300 years, J. geophys. Res., 95, 6629-6645.
75. Smith, B. & Sandwell, D., 2004. A 3-D semi-analytic viscoelastic model for time-dependent analysis of the earthquake cycle, J. geophys. Res., 109, doi:.
76. Smith, B. & Sandwell, D., 2006. A model of the earthquake cycle along the San Andreas fault system for the past 1000 years, J. geophys. Res., 111, B01405, doi:.
77. Smith, R., 1978. Seismicity, crustal structure, and intraplate tectonics of the interior of the western Cordillera, Geol. Soc. Am. Mem., 152, 111-144.
78. Stein, C. & Stein, S., 1992. A model for the global variation in oceanic depth and heat flow with lithospheric age, Nature, 359, 123-128.
79. Svarc, J.L., Savage, J.C. & Prescott, W.H., 2002a. Strain accumulation and rotation in western Nevada, 1993-2000, J. geophys. Res., 107, doi:.
80. Svarc, J.L., Savage, J.C., Prescott, W.H. & Murray, M.H., 2002b. Strain accumulation and rotation in western Oregon and southwestern Washington, J. geophys. Res., 107, doi:.
81. Tapponnier, P., Ryerson, F.J., Van der Woerd, J., Mériaux, A.S. & Lasserre, C., 2001. Long-term slip rates and characteristic slip: keys to active fault behaviour and earthquake hazard, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Sciences de la Terre et des planètes, 333, 483-494.
82. Thatcher, W., 2003. GPS constraints on the kinematics of continental deformation, Int. Geol. Rev., 45, 191-212.
83. Thatcher, W., Marshall, G. & Lisowski, M., 1997. Resolution of fault slip along the 470-km-long rupture of the great 1906 San Francisco eartthquake and its implications, J. geophys. Res., 102, 5353-5367.
84. Thatcher, W., Foulger, G.R., Julian, B.R., Svarc, J., Quilty, E. & Bawden, G.W., 1999. Present day deformation across the Basin and Range Province, western United States, Science, 282, 1714-1718.
85. Thomas, A.P. & Rockwell, T.K., 1996. A 300-to 550-year history of slip on the Imperial fault near the US-Mexico border: Missing slip at the imperial fault bottleneck, J. geophys. Res., 101, 5987-5997.
86. Trehu, A.M., Asudeh, I., Brocher, T.M., Luetgert, J., Mooney, W., Nabelek, J.L. & Nakamura, Y., 1994. Crustal architecture of the Cascadia forearc, Science, 266, 237-243.
87. Verdonck, D., 2004. Uplift and subsidence along the Cascadia subduction zone determined from historical repeated leveling, EOS, Trans. Am. geophys. Un., 85 (47), Fall Meet. Suppl., abstract S43D-06.
88. Wald, D. & Heaton, T., 1994. Spatial and temporal distribution of slip for the 1992 Landers, California, earthquake, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 84, 668-691.
89. Wallace, K., Yin, G. & Bilham, R., 2004. Inescapable slow slip on the Altyn Tagh fault, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, doi:.
90. Wallace, R., 1977. Profiles and ages of young fault scarps, north-central Nevada, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 88, 1267-1281.
91. Wallace, R., 1987. Grouping and migration of surface faulting and variation in slip rates on faults in the Great Basin province, Bull. seism. Soc. Am., 77, 868-877.
92. Wang, K., 2000. Stress-strain 'paradox', plate coupling, and forearc seismicity at the Cascadia and Nankai subduction zones, Tectonophysics, 319, 321-338.
93. Wang, K., Wells, R., Mazzotti, S., Hyndman, R. & Sagiya, T., 2003. A revised dislocation model of interseismic deformation of the cascadia subduction zone, J. geophys. Res., 108, doi:.
94. Wells, R.E. & Simpson, R.W., 2001. Microplate motion of the Cascadia forearc and implications for subduction deformation, Earth Planets Space, 53, 275-283.
95. Wernicke, B., Davis, J., Bennett, R., Normandeau, J., Friedrich, A. & Niemi, N., 2004. Tectonic implications of a dense continuous GPS velocity field at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, J. geophys. Res., 109, doi:.
96. Wesnousky, S., Prentice, C. & Sieh, K., 1991. An offset Holocene stream channel and rate of slip along the northern reach of the San Jacinto fault zone, San Bernardino Valley, California, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 103, 700-709.
97. Williams, C.A. & McCaffrey, R., 2001. Stress rates in the central Cascadia subduction zone inferred from an elastic plate model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 2125-2128.
98. Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 2003. Earthquake probabilities in the San Francisco Bay region, US Geological Survey Open-file Report, 03-214.
99. Yuen, D. & Peltier, W., 1982. Normal modes of the viscoelastic earth, Geophys. J. R. astr. Soc., 69, 495-526.
100. Zoback, M. & Zoback, M., 1989. Tectonic stress field of the continental united states, Geol. Soc. Am. Mem., 172, 523-539.
101. Zumberge, J., Heflin, M., Jefferson, D., Watkins, M. & Webb, F., 1997. Precise point positioning for the efficient and robust analysis of GPS data from large networks, J. geophys. Res., 102, 5005-5017.