New evidence on the state of stress of the san andreas fault system.

Contemporary in situ tectonic stress indicators along the San Andreas fault system in central California show northeast-directed horizontal compression that is nearly perpendicular to the strike of the fault. Such compression explains recent uplift of the Coast Ranges and the numerous active reverse faults and folds that trend nearly parallel to the San Andreas and that are otherwise unexplainable in terms of strike-slip deformation. Fault-normal crustal compression in central California is proposed to result from the extremely low shear strength of the San Andreas and the slightly convergent relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates. Preliminary in situ stress data from the Cajon Pass scientific drill hole (located 3.6 kilometers northeast of the San Andreas in southern California near San Bernardino, California) are also consistent with a weak fault, as they show no right-lateral shear stress at approximately 2-kilometer depth on planes parallel to the San Andreas fault.

State of stress and intraplate earthquakes in the United States.

Recently compiled data on the state of stress have been used to define stress provinces in the conterminous United States in which the orientation and relative magnitude of the horizontal principal stresses are fairly uniform. The observed pattems of stress constrain mechanisms for generating intraplate lithospheric stresses. Coupled with new information on geologic structure and tectonism in seismically active areas of the Midcontinent and East, these data help to define some characteristics common to these areas and to identify key questions regarding why certain faults seem to be seismically active.