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The motion of crustal blocks driven by flow of the lower lithosphere and implications for slip rates of continental strike-slip faults

Nature volume 391, pages 655–659 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Geodetic measurements in actively deforming areas of the continents reveal the pattern of deformation in the lithosphere. If the dominant forces acting on crustal blocks are tractions at their bases, then the long-term motion of each block will be given by the average velocity of the underlying lithosphere. Slip rates between blocks estimated in this way from recent geodetic measurements across fault zones in the South Island of New Zealand and Southern California are in good agreement with slip rates estimated geologically.

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Figure 1: Interseismic and long-term kinematics of crustal blocks within a zone of simple shear.
Figure 2: Variation with depth of velocity parallel to the faults.
Figure 3: Observed crustal displacements between 1982 and 1994 in the Marlborough fault zone in the South Island of New Zealand, expressed as average velocities over the interval.
Figure 4: Geodetically observed crustal displacements in the interval 1970–95 in Southern California, south of the Transverse Ranges, shown in the same manner as Fig. 3.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Arnadottir, G. Blick, G. Rowe, R. I. Walcott and P. Wood for their help in the field; J. Beavan, D. Darby and R. I. Walcott for discussions on the measurement and interpretation of active deformation in New Zealand; K. Sieh for many insights into the active deformation of California; Z.-k. Shen and D. D. Jackson for provision of data; and J. Haines for comments. GPS studies of crustal deformation in the South Island of New Zealand were supported at Oxford by the Natural Environment Research Council. The GPS measurements in the Marlborough fault zone were also supported by the Department of Surveying and Land Information, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, and Victoria University, Wellington. Part of this work was carried out while P.C.E. held a visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PR, UK

    S. J. Bourne, P. C. England & B. Parsons

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Bourne, S., England, P. & Parsons, B. The motion of crustal blocks driven by flow of the lower lithosphere and implications for slip rates of continental strike-slip faults. Nature 391, 655–659 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35556

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