Simulation of slip transients and earthquakes in finite thickness shear zones with a plastic formulation.

We perform numerical experiments of damped quasi-dynamic fault slip that include a rate-and-state behavior at steady state to simulate earthquakes and a plastic rheology to model permanent strain. The model shear zone has a finite width which represents a natural fault zone. Here we reproduce fast and slow events that follow theoretical and observational scaling relationships for earthquakes and slow slip events (SSEs). We show that the transition between fast and slow slip occurs when the friction drop in the shear zone is equal to a critical value, Δµc. With lower friction drops, SSEs use nearly all of mechanical work to accumulate inelastic strain, while with higher friction drops fast slips use some of the mechanical work to slip frictionally. Our new formulation replaces the state evolution of rate and state by the stress evolution concurrent with accumulation of permanent damage in and around a fault zone.

Variable Holocene deformation above a shallow subduction zone extremely close to the trench.

Histories of vertical crustal motions at convergent margins offer fundamental insights into the relationship between interplate slip and permanent deformation. Moreover, past abrupt motions are proxies for potential tsunamigenic earthquakes and benefit hazard assessment. Well-dated records are required to understand the relationship between past earthquakes and Holocene vertical deformation. Here we measure elevations and (230)Th ages of in situ corals raised above the sea level in the western Solomon Islands to build an uplift event history overlying the seismogenic zone, extremely close to the trench (4-40 km). We find marked spatiotemporal heterogeneity in uplift from mid-Holocene to present: some areas accrue more permanent uplift than others. Thus, uplift imposed during the 1 April 2007 Mw 8.1 event may be retained in some locations but removed in others before the next megathrust rupture. This variability suggests significant changes in strain accumulation and the interplate thrust process from one event to the next.

A mechanism to thin the continental lithosphere at magma-poor margins.

Where continental plates break apart, slip along multiple normal faults provides the required space for the Earth's crust to thin and subside. After initial rifting, however, the displacement on normal faults observed at the sea floor seems not to match the inferred extension. Here we show that crustal thinning can be accomplished in such extensional environments by a system of conjugate concave downward faults instead of multiple normal faults. Our model predicts that these concave faults accumulate large amounts of extension and form a very thin crust (< 10 km) by exhumation of mid-crustal and mantle material. This transitional crust is capped by sub-horizontal detachment surfaces over distances exceeding 100 km with little visible deformation. Our rift model is based on numerical experiments constrained by geological and geophysical observations from the Alpine Tethys and Iberia/Newfoundland margins. Furthermore, we suggest that the observed transition from broadly distributed and symmetric extension to localized and asymmetric rifting is directly controlled by the existence of a strong gabbroic lower crust. The presence of such lower crustal gabbros is well constrained for the Alpine Tethys system. Initial decoupling of upper crustal deformation from lower crustal and mantle deformation by progressive weakening of the middle crust is an essential requirement to reproduce the observed rift evolution. This is achieved in our models by the formation of weak ductile shear zones.

Modes of faulting at mid-ocean ridges.

Abyssal-hill-bounding faults that pervade the oceanic crust are the most common tectonic feature on the surface of the Earth. The recognition that these faults form at plate spreading centres came with the plate tectonic revolution. Recent observations reveal a large range of fault sizes and orientations; numerical models of plate separation, dyke intrusion and faulting require at least two distinct mechanisms of fault formation at ridges to explain these observations. Plate unbending with distance from the top of an axial high reproduces the observed dip directions and offsets of faults formed at fast-spreading centres. Conversely, plate stretching, with differing amounts of constant-rate magmatic dyke intrusion, can explain the great variety of fault offset seen at slow-spreading ridges. Very-large-offset normal faults only form when about half the plate separation at a ridge is accommodated by dyke intrusion.