Geomagnetic induction anomaly near Kootenay Lake—a strike–slip feature in the lower crust?

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 1568-1579 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Lajoie ◽  
B. Caner
Keyword(s):  
Surface Expression ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Conductive Layer ◽  
Geomagnetic Induction ◽  
Western Cordillera ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Conductivity Structure ◽  
Kootenay Lake ◽  
Lower Crustal ◽  
East West

A geomagnetic induction anomaly in southeastern British Columbia has been investigated in detail with a 20-station network. The results indicate a sharp (near vertical) discontinuity in deep electrical conductivity structure, trending roughly east–west and located at the south end of Kootenay Lake. It is interpreted as evidence for sinistral strike–slip which intersected the edge of the main conductive layer which underlies most of the western Cordillera.Geological evidence indicates that such a feature (which has no known surface expression) must predate the late Paleozoic or early Mesozoic (200–250 m.y.). The persistence of sharp discontinuities over such long periods would confirm the compositional, rather than thermal, nature of the lower crustal conductive layer under the western Cordillera.

The arc of the Western Alps : understanding its kinematics and formation mechanisms based on new structural and paleomagnetic datas, and thermo-mechanical modelling.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Brunsmann ◽  
Claudio Rosenberg ◽  
Nicolas Bellahsen ◽  
Laetitia Le Pourhiet
Keyword(s):  
Western Alps ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Rheological Parameters ◽  
The South ◽  
Adriatic Plate ◽  
The North ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
Internal Zone ◽  
The Alps ◽  
East West

<p>The Alps have an overall East-West orientation, which changes radically in their western termination, where they rotate southward into a N-S strike, and then eastward into an E-W strike, forming the arc of the Western Alps. This arc is commonly inferred to have formed during collision, due to indentation of the Adriatic plate into the European continental margin. Several models attempted to provide a kinematic explanation for the formation of this arched, lateral end of the Alps. Indeed, the radial nature of the transport directions observed along the arc of the Western Alps cannot be explained by a classic convergence model.<br>For more than 50 years the formation of this arc was been associated to westward-directed indentation of Adria, accommodated along East-West oriented strike-slip faults, a sinistral one in the South of the arc and a dextral one in the North. The dextral one correspond to the Insubric Fault. The sinistral strike-slip zone, inferred to be localized along the «Stura corridor» (Piedmont, Italy) would correspond to a displacement of 100 to 150 km according to palaeogeographical, and geometric analyses. However, field evidence is scarce and barely documented in the literature.<br>Vertical axis rotations of the Adriatic indenter also inferred to be syn-collisional could have influenced the acquisition of the morphology of the arc. Paleomagnetic analyses carried out in the Internal Zone and in the Po plain suggest a southward increading amount of counter-clockwise rotation of the Adriatic plate and the Internal Zone, varying from 20°-25° in the North to nearly 120° in the South.<br>Dextral shear zones possibly accommodating this rotation in some conceptual models is observed in several places below the Penninic Front and affect the Argentera massif to the south. However, the measured displacement quantities do not appear to be equivalent to those induced by such rotations.<br>The present study aims to constrain the kinematic evolution of the arc of the Western Alps through a multidisciplinary approach. The first aspect of this project is the structural analysis of the area (Stura corridor) inferred to accommodate large sinistral displacements allowing for the westward indentation of the Adriatic indenter. We discuss the general lack of field evidence supporting sinistral strike-slip movements, in contrast to large-scale compilation of structures suggesting the possible occurrence of such displacement. The second part consists of a palaeomagnetic study, in which new data are integred with a compilation of already existing data. This compilation shows that several parts of the arc in the External Zone did not suffer any Cenozoic rotations, hence suggesting that a proto-arc already axisted at the onset collision, as suggested by independent evidence of some paleogeographic reconstruction. Finally, 2D and 3D thermo-mechanical modeling in using the pTatin3D code is used to test which structural (geometrical), and rheological parameters affected the first-order morphology of the Western Alpin arc and its kinematics. The synthesis of these different approaches allows us to propose a new model explaining the kinematics and the mechanisms of formation of the Western Alps arc.</p>

Aftershocks and surface faulting associated with the intraplate Guinea, West Africa, earthquake of 22 December 1983

1987 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 1579-1601
Author(s):  
C. J. Langer ◽  
M. G. Bonilla ◽  
G. A. Bollinger
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Focal Mechanism ◽  
Main Shock ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Epicentral Area ◽  
Lateral Strike Slip ◽  
Focal Mechanism Solutions ◽  
Short Period ◽  
East West

Abstract This study reports on the results of geological and seismological field studies conducted following the rare occurrence of a moderate-sized West African earthquake (mb = 6.4) with associated ground breakage. The epicentral area of the northwestern Guinea earthquake of 22 December 1983 is a coastal margin, intraplate locale with a very low level of historical seismicity. The principal results include the observation that seismic faulting occurred on a preexisting fault system and that there is good agreement among the surface faulting, the spatial distribution of the aftershock hypocenters, and the composite focal mechanism solutions. We are not able, however, to shed any light on the reason(s) for the unexpected occurrence of this intraplate earthquake. Thus, the significance of this study is its contribution to the observational datum for such earthquakes and for the seismicity of West Africa. The main shock was associated with at least 9 km of surface fault-rupture. Trending east-southeast to east-west, measured fault displacements up to ∼13 cm were predominantly right-lateral strike slip and were accompanied by an additional component (5 to 7 cm) of vertical movement, southwest side down. The surface faulting occurred on a preexisting fault whose field characteristics suggest a low slip rate with very infrequent earthquakes. There were extensive rockfalls and minor liquefaction effects at distances less than 10 km from the surface faulting and main shock epicenter. Main shock focal mechanism solutions derived from teleseismic data by other workers show a strong component of normal faulting motion that was not observed in the ground ruptures. A 15-day period of aftershock monitoring, commencing 22 days after the main shock, was conducted. Eleven portable, analog short-period vertical seismographs were deployed in a network with an aperture of 25 km and an average station spacing of 7 km. Ninety-five aftershocks were located from the more than 200 recorded events with duration magnitudes of about 1.5 or greater. Analysis of a selected subset (91) of those events define a tabular aftershock volume (26 km long by 14 km wide by 4 km thick) trending east-southeast and dipping steeply (∼60°) to the south-southwest. Composite focal mechanisms for groups of events, distributed throughout the aftershock volume, exhibit right-lateral, strike-slip motion on subvertical planes that strike almost due east. Although the general agreement between the field geologic and seismologic results is good, our preferred interpretation is for three en-echelon faults striking almost due east-west.

Crustal structure and surface zonation of the Canadian Appalachians: implications of deep seismic reflection data

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Marillier ◽  
Charlotte E. Keen ◽  
Glen S. Stockmal ◽  
Garry Quinlan ◽  
Harold Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Surface Expression ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
Crust And Upper Mantle ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Central Block ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Lower Crustal ◽  
Canadian Appalachians

In 1986, 1181 km of marine seismic reflection data was collected to 18–20 s of two-way traveltime in the Gulf of St. Lawrence area. The seismic profiles sample all major surface tectono-stratigraphic zones of the Canadian Appalachians. They complement the 1984 deep reflection survey northeast of Newfoundland. Together, the seismic profiles reveal the regional three-dimensional geometry of the orogen.Three lower crustal blocks are distinguished on the seismic data. They are referred to as the Grenville, Central, and Avalon blocks, from west to east. The Grenville block is wedge shaped in section, and its subsurface edge follows the form of the Appalachian structural front. The Grenville block abuts the Central block at mid-crustal to mantle depths. The Avalon block meets the Central block at a steep junction that penetrates the entire crust.Consistent differences in the seismic character of the Moho help identify boundaries of the deep crustal blocks. The Moho signature varies from uniform over extended distances to irregular with abrupt depth changes. In places the Moho is offset by steep reflections that cut the lower crust and upper mantle. In other places, the change in Moho elevation is gradual, with lower crustal reflections following its form. In all three blocks the crust is generally highly reflective, with no distinction between a transparent upper crust and reflective lower crust.In general, Carboniferous and Mesozoic basins crossed by the seismic profiles overlie thinner crust. However, a deep Moho is found at some places beneath the Carboniferous Magdalen Basin.The Grenville block belongs to the Grenville Craton; the Humber Zone is thrust over its dipping southwestern edge. The Dunnage Zone is allochthonous above the opposing Grenville and Central blocks. The Gander Zone may be the surface expression of the Central block or may be allochthonous itself. There is a spatial analogy between the Avalon block and the Avalon Zone. Our profile across the Meguma Zone is too short to seismically distinguish this zone from the Avalon Zone.

Strike-Slip Earthquakes at the Northern Edge of the Calabrian Arc Subduction Zone

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Calderoni ◽  
Anna Gervasi ◽  
Mario La Rocca ◽  
Guido Ventura
Keyword(s):  
Subduction Zone ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Corner Frequency ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
Source Directivity ◽  
Northern Edge ◽  
East West ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract We analyzed earthquakes of a swarm started in October 2019 in the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the northern border of the Calabrian arc subduction zone. The swarm is located in the same area where a subduction-transform edge propagator (STEP) shear- zone -oriented east–west is recognized from ocean floor morphology and submarine volcanoes. We computed focal mechanism, relative location, stress drop, corner frequency, and source directivity of the mainshock Mw 4.4 and of some aftershocks in the local magnitude range 2.3–3.7. Results indicate clearly that the mainshock occurred on a northwest–southeast-oriented fault, with right-lateral strike-slip motion, and it was characterized by a strong directivity of the rupture propagation from northwest to southeast. On the contrary, most of aftershocks were located on another strike-slip fault oriented northeast–southwest and had left-lateral kinematics. The kinematic features of these earthquakes indicate a strain field with the P-axis oriented north–south and the T-axis oriented east–west. Fault directions and stress field are in good agreement with the theoretical fracture model of shear zones associated with a STEP.

Geodynamic evolution of the Canadian Cordillera — progress and problems

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 770-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. H. Monger ◽  
R. A. Price
Keyword(s):  
Continental Margin ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Granitic Rocks ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Thrust Faulting ◽  
Western Cordillera ◽  
Geophysical Surveys

The present geodynamic pattern of the Canadian Cordillera, the main features of which were probably established in Miocene time, involves a combination of right-hand strike-slip movements on transform faults along the continental margin, and, in the south and extreme north, convergence in subduction zones in which oceanic lithosphere moves beneath the continent, with consequent magmatism along the continental margin. In the southern Canadian Cordillera, geophysical surveys have outlined the subducting slab and the asthenospheric bulge that occurs beneath and behind the magmatic arc. They also show that there is now no root of thickened Precambrian continental crust beneath the tectonically shortened supracrustal strata in the southern parts of the Omineca Crystalline Belt and Rocky Mountain Belt.The Rocky Mountain, Omineca Crystalline, Intermontane, Coast Plutonic, and Insular Belts, the structural and physiographic provinces that dominate the present configuration of the Canadian Cordillera, were established with the initial uplift and the intrusion of granitic rocks in the Omineca Crystalline Belt in Middle and Late Jurassic time and in the Coast Plutonic Complex in Early Cretaceous time, and they dominated patterns of uplift, erosion and deposition through Cretaceous and Paleogene time. Their development may be due to compression with thrust faulting in the eastern Cordillera, and to magmatism that accompanied subduction and to accretion of an exotic terrane, Wrangellia, in the western Cordillera. Major right-lateral strike-slip faulting, which occurred well east of but sub-parallel with the continental margin during Late Cretaceous and Paleogene time, accompanied major tectonic shortening due to thrusting and folding in the Rocky Mountain Belt as well as the main subduction-related (?) magmatism in the Coast Plutonic Complex.The configuration of the western Cordillera prior to late Middle Jurassic time is enigmatic. Late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic volcanogenic strata form a complex collage of volcanic arcs and subduction complexes that was assembled mainly in the Mesozoic. The change in locus of deposition between Upper Triassic and Lower to Middle Jurassic volcanogenic assemblages, and the thrust faulting in the northern Cordillera may record emplacement of another exotic terrane, the Stikine block, in latest Triassic to Middle Jurassic time.The earliest stage in the evolution of the Cordilleran fold belt involved the protracted (1500 to 380 Ma) development of a northeasterly tapering sedimentary wedge that discordantly overlaps Precambrian structures of the cratonic basement. This miogeoclinal wedge may be a continental margin terrace wedge that was prograded into an ocean basin, but it has features that may be more indicative of progradation into a marginal basin in which there was intermittent volcanic activity, than into a stable expanding ocean basin of the Atlantic type.

A reevaluation of the position of the Baie Verte – Brompton Line in the Quebec Appalachians: the influence of Middle Devonian strike-slip faulting in Gaspé Peninsula

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1265-1273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Malo ◽  
Donna Kirkwood ◽  
Gilles De Broucker ◽  
Pierre St-Julien
Keyword(s):  
Middle Devonian ◽  
Surface Expression ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Aeromagnetic Data ◽  
Geological Data ◽  
Appalachian Orogen ◽  
Eastern Townships ◽  
Gaspe Peninsula ◽  
Gaspé Peninsula

The Baie Verte – Brompton Line (BBL), the surface expression of the Taconian suture in the Canadian Appalachian Orogen, extends from southern Quebec to the northeast end of Newfoundland. In the Quebec Appalachians, the BBL was previously located under the post-Taconian cover rocks between the Eastern Townships and Gaspé Peninsula. New geological data and reinterpretation of gravimetric and aeromagnetic data suggest that the BBL follows the southern edge of the Cambrian–Ordovician rocks of northern Gaspé Peninsula and is displaced by Middle Devonian strike-slip faults on the southern part of the peninsula. On a pre-Middle Devonian palinspastic map, the BBL is parallel to the Quebec Reentrant – St. Lawrence Promontory and the Appalachian structural front.

MICROEARTHQUAKE INVESTIGATION OF THE MESA GEOTHERMAL ANOMALY, IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Geophysics ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Combs ◽  
David Hadley
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Component ◽  
Surface Expression ◽  
High Gain ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Imperial Valley ◽  
Natural Period ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Geothermal Fluids ◽  
First Motion ◽  
Motion Studies

Microearthquakes associated with the Mesa geothermal anomaly were recorded for five weeks during the summer of 1973 using an array of six portable, high‐gain seismographs equipped with vertical‐component 1-sec natural period seismometers. Background seismicity of the area is thus determined prior to development for geothermal power and water. The local seismicity changed considerably over the recording period. Most daily activity was characterized by only one or two potentially locatable events, while two microearthquake swarms of two‐ and three‐day duration included as many as 100 or more distinct local events per day. Hundreds of small events (nanoearthquakes), some clustered in swarms, were recorded by each seismograph; however, most were not detected on four or more seismograms so that hypocentral locations usually could not be determined. Locations were determined for 36 microearthquakes having epicenters situated in the [Formula: see text] areal extent of the geothermal anomaly. Focal depths ranged from near‐surface to about 8 km. More than half of the located events have hypocenters greater than the 4.0 km which is approximately the depth to crystalline basement. Stress associated with the Mesa geothermal anomaly is relieved by a combination of continuous microseismic activity and intermittent microearthquake swarms. Based on the results of the present study, a new right‐lateral strike‐slip fault, the Mesa fault, was defined. First motion studies indicate strike‐slip faulting although there is no surface expression of the fault. The northwest‐southeast trending Mesa fault is an active fault functioning as a conduit for rising geothermal fluids of the Mesa geothermal anomaly. This investigation is another demonstration that geothermal areas are characterized by enhanced microearthquake activity.

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