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Spacing of Faults at the Scale of the Lithosphere and Localization Instability: 2. Application to the Central Indian Basin Laurent G

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Spacing of Faults at the Scale of the Lithosphere and Localization Instability: 2. Application to the Central Indian Basin Laurent G JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. B2, 2111, doi:10.1029/2002JB001924, 2003 Spacing of faults at the scale of the lithosphere and localization instability: 2. Application to the Central Indian Basin Laurent G. J. Monte´si1 and Maria T. Zuber2 Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Received 12 April 2002; revised 21 October 2002; accepted 10 December 2002; published 20 February 2003. [1] Tectonic deformation in the Central Indian Basin (CIB) is organized at two spatial scales: long-wavelength (200 km) undulations of the basement and regularly spaced faults. The fault spacing of order 7–11 km is too short to be explained by lithospheric buckling. We show that the localization instability derived by Monte´si and Zuber [2003] provides an explanation for the fault spacing in the CIB. Localization describes how deformation focuses on narrow zones analogous to faults. The localization instability predicts that localized shear zones form a regular pattern with a characteristic spacing as they develop. The theoretical fault spacing is proportional to the depth to which localization occurs. It also depends on the strength profile and on the effective stress exponent, ne, which is a measure of localization efficiency in the brittle crust and upper mantle. The fault spacing in the CIB can be matched by ne À300 if the faults reach the depth of the brittle– ductile transition (BDT) around 40 km or ne À100 if the faults do not penetrate below 10 km. These values of ne are compatible with laboratory data on frictional velocity weakening. Many faults in the CIB were formed during seafloor spreading. The preexisting faults near target locations separated by the wavelength of the localization instability were preferentially reactivated during the current episode of compressive tectonics. The long- wavelength undulations may result from the interaction between buckling and localization. INDEX TERMS: 8010 Structural Geology: Fractures and faults; 8020 Structural Geology: Mechanics; 8159 Tectonophysics: Evolution of the Earth: Rheology—crust and lithosphere; KEYWORDS: faults, Central Indian Basin, fault spacing, folds, strength envelope, diffuse plate boundary Citation: Monte´si, L. G. J., and M. T. Zuber, Spacing of faults at the scale of the lithosphere and localization instability: 2. Application to the Central Indian Basin, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B2), 2111, doi:10.1029/2002JB001924, 2003. 1. Introduction: Tectonics of the Central Indian Capricorn plate rotates anticlockwise with respect to the Basin (CIB) Indian plate about a pole of rotation located near the Chagos Bank [Royer and Gordon, 1997], compressing the CIB in a [2] The CIB is the region SE of India delimited by the roughly N-S direction. The deformation area was originally Ninetyeast ridge to the east, the Chagos-Laccadive ridge to identified from a relatively high earthquake activity [Guten- the west, and the SE and central Indian ridges to the berg and Richter, 1954; Sykes, 1970; Stein and Okal, 1978; south. To the north, the basin is covered by the Bengal fan Bergman and Solomon, 1985] and is also recognized in the that accommodates sediments from the High Himalayas gravity field as a region of E-W trending linear anomalies (Figure 1). [Stein et al., 1989]. [3] The best-studied oceanic diffuse plate boundary is [4] Previous studies showed that shortening in the CIB is locatedintheCIB[Wiens et al.,1985;Gordon et al., expressed at two length scales: 1990]. This intraplate deformation area is part of the Indo- 1. The basement is folded at 200 km wavelength. The Australian plate. Following the nomenclature of Gordon undulations, of amplitude up to 2 km, are visible both from [2000], the composite Indo-Australian plate is made of three long seismic reflection profiles [Weissel et al., 1980] and as component plates: India, Capricorn, and Australia. The E-W lineations of the gravity field [Stein et al., 1989]. 2. Reverse faults (Figure 2) cut through the sediment 1Now at Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole cover and the crystalline basement [Eittreim and Ewing, Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. 1972; Weissel et al., 1980; Bull and Scrutton, 1990, 1992; 2 Also at Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard Space Chamot-Rooke et al., 1993], delimiting 5–20 km wide Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. crustal blocks [Neprochnov et al., 1988; Krishna et al., Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union. 2001]. The average fault spacing is 7–11 km [Bull, 1990; 0148-0227/03/2002JB001924$09.00 Van Orman et al., 1995]. ETG 15 - 1 ETG 15 - 2 MONTE´ SI AND ZUBER: SPACING OF FAULTS, 2 Previous studies have focused on the geometry of these faults in order to constrain the magnitude of the N-S shortening [Eittreim and Ewing, 1972; Bull and Scrutton, 1992; Chamot-Rooke et al., 1993; Van Orman et al., 1995]. Faults may be divided into two separate populations, one north verging and the other south verging [Bull, 1990; Chamot-Rooke et al., 1993] and groups of faults may have been active at different times [Krishna et al., 1998, 2001]. Numerical models have shown that faults may be important in allowing buckling to develop, in particular by lowering the stress required for buckling [Wallace and Melosh, 1994; Beekman et al., 1996; Gerbault, 2000]. However, what controls the fault spacing has not been thoroughly addressed. [7] While the basement undulations can be explained by buckling of the lithosphere, the fault pattern cannot: fault spacing is much less than the spacing of basement undu- lations, and faulting, being a localized rather than distrib- uted deformation mode, is not accounted for in the usual buckling analysis. However, Monte´si and Zuber [2003] modified the buckling analysis to account for the fact that brittle rocks have a tendency to localize deformation. In that case, two superposed instabilities grow simultaneously in lithosphere models undergoing horizontal shortening. One is the buckling instability [Fletcher, 1974; Zuber, 1987], resulting in broad undulations of the lithosphere as a whole. The other, that we call the localization instability, results in a network of localized shear zones that we interpret as Figure 1. Satellite-derived bathymetry of the CIB region faults. The developing fault network has a characteristic from ETOPO5 [Smith and Sandwell, 1997]. ANS, Afanazy- fault spacing, which scales with the thickness of the brittle Nikishin seamounts. Shaded region, intraplate deformation layer and is a function of the efficiency of localization. area [Gordon et al., 1990]. [8] Because fault spacing is seldom discussed, we first review the evidence for regularly spaced faults in the CIB, paying special attention to the occurrence of fault reactiva- [5] The long-wavelength deformation may correspond to tion. Then, we apply the localization instability analysis buckling of a thick plastic plate [Zuber, 1987]. Buckling derived by Monte´si and Zuber [2003] to the CIB, compar- requires that the density contrast between the lithosphere ing the theoretical wavelength of instability with the fault and the overlying fluid be small [Zuber, 1987; Martinod spacing. We explore different assumptions about the and Molnar, 1995]. With a high density contrast, the growth strength profile of the lithosphere at the brittle–ductile rate of buckling becomes vanishingly small. Hence, the transition (BDT), focusing on the manner that they influ- Bengal fan may be instrumental in allowing buckling as the ence fault spacing, and the efficiency of localization that mobile fan sediments provide a heavier ‘‘fluid’’ than ocean matches the observation. Finally, we discuss the localization water. Zuber [1987] also documented an increase in the mechanism implied for the CIB, the depth of localization, wavelength of basement undulations toward the north, and how faulting and buckling may be related. Our theory which is consistent with increased sediment supply but also provides a unified model for creating basement undulations with the northward increase of lithospheric age. The Whar- and regularly spaced faults in the CIB. ton basin, immediately to the east of the Ninetyeast ridge (Figure 1), displays similar gravity lineations that may represent basement undulations beyond the reaches of the 2. Faults in the CIB Nicobar fan [Cloetingh and Wortel, 1986; Tinnon et al., 2.1. Geometry and Activity 1995]. The Wharton basin is seismically active [Robinson et [9] Although some faults in the CIB are visible in the al., 2001; Abercrombie et al., 2003], and fracture zones in it basement, their clearest expression is often a tight fold in have been recently reactivated [Deplus et al., 1998]. In the the sedimentary sequence. The faults are subvertical in the absence of fan sediments, it is not clear how buckling sediments, but dip around 40° in the basement [Bull, 1990; developed in the southern parts of the Wharton basin. Chamot-Rooke et al., 1993]. They are sometimes imaged to Folding of a thin elastic plate [McAdoo and Sandwell, depths of 6 km, below which the available data lose 1985] is an alternative origin for the basement undulations. resolution. It is thought that the faults penetrate into the However, it requires that the flexural rigidity of the litho- upper mantle [Bull and Scrutton, 1992; Chamot-Rooke et sphere be reduced, possibly by yielding or faulting [McA- al., 1993]. doo and Sandwell, 1985; Wallace and Melosh, 1994]. [10] The faults originated in the basement and propagated [6] The origin of the pattern of reverse faults in the CIB into the sediment cover [Bull and Scrutton, 1992]. Geo- has received less attention than the lithospheric folds. physical evidence shows that folding in the CIB was MONTE´ SI AND ZUBER: SPACING OF FAULTS, 2 ETG 15 - 3 Figure 2. Multichannel seismic reflection profile from the CIB [Bull and Scrutton, 1992]. Finely spaced faults with a spacing of 7 km are superposed on a long-wavelength basement undulation.
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