Journal article

The Development of Fault Networks at the Termination of Continental Transform Faults When Their Connecting Plate Boundary Is “Misaligned”

M Withers, AR Cruden, MC Quigley

Tectonics | AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION | Published : 2023

Abstract

We report the results of a series of scaled laboratory experiments that investigate the development of fault systems in plate boundary transition zones, where deformation is distributed between a continental transform fault (e.g., Alpine Fault, New Zealand; North Anatolian Fault (NAF), Turkey; San Andreas Fault (SAF), USA) and its connecting plate boundary. In these transition zones, continental transform faults are observed to branch into multiple subsidiary faults. Here we show that large-scale transition zone fault networks comprise crustal-scale Riedel shears that develop sequentially outwards and away from the parent transform fault. Such fault networks form within brittle upper crust t..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Funding Acknowledgements

Anindita Samsu is thanked for teaching and guidance in the Monash University Geodynamics laboratory. Lachlan Grose for constructive discussions during preparation of the manuscript and for assistance in generating the image stacks used in Figure 7. Mike Hall, for constructive feedback on the manuscript. Jan Oliver Eisermann for guidance on DIC analysis. Michelle L. Cooke and Andrew Nicol for constructive feedback on the thesis chapter from which this manuscript is based. Thanks go to Anonymous Reviewer 1, Tim Dooley (Reviewer 2) and Associate Editor Ernst Willingshofer for constructuve feedback on the manuscript. Open access publishing facilitated by Monash University, as part of the Wiley - Monash University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.