Tectonic Inheritance With Dipping Faults and Deformation Fabric in the Brittle and Ductile Southern California Crust

• Main Authors: Schulte-Pelkum, Vera, Ross, Zachary E., Mueller, Karl, Benâ€Zion, Yehuda
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2020
• Subjects: reactivation; receiver functions; anisotropy; seismicity; tectonics; inheritance; Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience and EarthScope
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jb019525

Plate motions in Southern California have undergone a transition from compressional and extensional regimes to a dominantly strikeâ€slip regime in the Miocene. Strikeâ€slip motion is most easily accommodated on vertical faults, and major transform fault strands in the region are typically mapped as near vertical on the surface. However, some previous work suggests that these faults have a dipping geometry at depth. We analyze receiver function arrivals that vary harmonically with back azimuth at all available broadband stations in the region. The results show a dominant signal from contrasts in dipping foliation as well as dipping isotropic velocity contrasts from all crustal depths, including from the ductile middle to lower crust. We interpret these receiver function observations as a dipping faultâ€parallel structural fabric that is pervasive throughout the region. The strike of these structures and fabrics is parallel to that of nearby fault surface traces. We also plot microseismicity on depth profiles perpendicular to major strikeâ€slip faults and find consistently NE dipping features in seismicity changing from near vertical (80–85°) on the Elsinore Fault in the Peninsular Ranges to 60–65° slightly further inland on the San Jacinto Fault to 50–55° on the San Andreas Fault. Taken together, the dipping features in seismicity and in rock fabric suggest that preexisting fabrics and faults may have acted as strain guides in the modern slip regime, with reactivation and growth of strikeâ€slip faults along northeast dipping fabrics both above and below the brittleâ€ductile transition. © 2020 American Geophysical Union. Issue Online: 28 July 2020; Version of Record online: 28 July 2020; Accepted manuscript online: 25 June 2020; Manuscript accepted: 22 June 2020; Manuscript revised: 02 June 2020; Manuscript received: 05 February 2020. IRIS Data Services are funded through the Seismological Facilities for the Advancement of Geoscience and EarthScope (SAGE) Proposal of the National Science Foundation ...