Evidence for Possible Horizontal Faulting in Southern California from Earthquake Mechanisms

Evidence for possible horizontal faulting in southern California from earthquake mechanisms

Weishi Huang* L. T. Silver Seismological Laboratory, 252-21, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 H. Kanamori

ABSTRACT Henrys et al., 1993); the nature and age of these features are still We ﬁnd that 36 of the 505 fault-plane solutions (M > 3.0, speculative. In this paper, we focus on the possible evidence for 1981–1990) in southern California have a nodal plane dipping no low-angle faulting in southern California from earthquake focal .more than 30؇. With the assumption of the low-angle nodal planes mechanisms being the fault planes, four cross sections are constructed to show the possible horizontal faults in the middle and upper crust. More LOW-ANGLE FAULT-PLANE SOLUTIONS than half of these low-angle faults are located within or adjacent to We studied fault-plane solutions of 505 M Ն 3.0 earthquakes the Transverse Ranges. The focal depths vary from 1 km in the from 1981 to 1990 and found that 7% of these events have one plane southern end of the Sierra Nevada and the southwestern Mojave Desert to 20 km in the Transverse Ranges. The slip directions are also diverse. In general, east-west extensional movements are dominant in the boundary between the southern Sierra Nevada extend- ing to the San Emigdio Mountains and the western Mojave Desert, whereas north-south compressional movements are dominant in the Transverse Ranges. In the Peninsular Ranges and the Salton Trough, both the slip directions and focal depths vary. These features suggest that seismically active low-angle faults in southern California may exist at different depths and slip in various directions. Our data do not support the existence of a regional-scale seismically active detachment in southern California. Only in the western Transverse Ranges is there some suggestion of a large detachment surface at a depth of about 13 to 14 km.

INTRODUCTION Southern California contains a complex system of faults that vary in orientation, sense of movement, and scale (Anderson, 1971; Jennings, 1977). Among these are low-angle faults that commonly do not have surface expressions and form the concealed faults as exemplified by the 1987 M ϭ 5.9 Whittier Narrows and 1994 M ϭ 6.7 Northridge earthquakes. It is clear that such faults should be taken into account for seismic hazard evaluation (Davis et al., 1989). However, because of the limited data, detailed geometries of these types of faults are still poorly known and different interpretations for their tectonic significance are inevitable (see Davis and Namson, 1994; Yeats and Huftile, 1995). The central controversies lie in how these low-angle faults extend below the focal depths. Do they main- tain their dip throughout the upper crust, or rotate and become more inclined toward the horizontal plane as they extend into a deeper part of the crust, or are they very local and individual, each truncated by larger low-angle faults? Although the relation between the low-angle faults and the kinematic role they play is vigorously debated, their existence in southern California is generally accepted by geologists and seismologists. The seismological evidence for low- angle faulting in the crust includes (1) earthquakes with nearly flat fault-plane solutions (Hadley and Kanamori, 1978; Webb and Ka- namori, 1985; Huang et al., 1993); and (2) the existence of nearly horizontal reflectors and discontinuities as revealed by COCORP (Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling), deep seismic reflection data, and gravity studies (Cheadle et al., 1986; Li et al., 1992;

*Present address: Department of Geology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708.

Geology; February 1996; v. 24; no. 2; p. 123–126; 3 figures; 1 table. 123 Figure 1. Map showing focal mechanisms of earthquakes in southern California which have nodal plane dipping no more than 30° and are possibly associated with horizontal faulting. Events shown are M > 3.0, 1981–1990. Of 36 events, 56% are located in shaded region, Transverse Ranges (TR). Numbers in parentheses are focal depth in kilometres. Numbers outside parentheses are event numbers keyed to Table 1. SJF is San Jacinto fault, SSN is southern Sierra Nevada. dipping no more than 30Њ (Table 1). Most of these mechanism so- are events 15, 24, and 34 at the depth of 6–7 km, and events 3, 16, lutions were determined with more than 20 P-wave first-motion and 30 at the depth of 13–14 km in the western Transverse Ranges data. Although the detailed geometry is subject to some uncertainty, (Figs. 1 and 2). Second, the low-angle faulting may be associated the overall geometry with the low-angle nodal plane is constrained with folding in the basement above a basal decollement as inferred well with the data from the dense Southern California Seismic Net- in the central Transverse Ranges (e.g., Silver, 1991). Reverse slip work. Unfortunately, except for large earthquakes such as the 1987 between or within layers is likely to occur at the flank of a syncline Whittier Narrows earthquake (no. 27 in Table 1), we cannot deter- where a local intensified compressional regime exists, whereas nor- mine which of the two nodal planes is the actual fault plane. In this mal faulting is likely to occur at the hinge of an anticline where a report, with the inevitable assumption that the low-angle nodal local enhanced extensional regime exists (Yeats, 1986). This mech- planes are the fault planes, we present these mechanism solutions as anism may explain events with the same strike but at different possible evidence for low-angle faulting in the crust. depths. Possible events of this kind are events 19 and 31 in the The majority of these low-angle events are located in, or ad- central Transverse Ranges (Fig. 1). The third possibility is that the jacent to, the Transverse Ranges (shaded area in Fig. 1), where low-angle faulting is associated with movement of major strike-slip north-south convergence is well recorded. A few are in the southern faults, being a normal fault at the divergent end and a reverse fault Sierra Nevada–Tehachapi–San Emigdio Mountains region and the at the convergent end. Normal faults have been observed in the western margin of the Mojave Desert. A very few are located in the releasing bends (Crowell, 1974) or in the dilational jogs (Sibson, Peninsular Ranges. Two important features are displayed in Fig- 1986), and reverse faults have been observed in the restraining ure 1: (1) the nearly flat fault planes are distributed at different bends (Crowell, 1974) or in the antidilational jogs (Sibson, 1986) of depths and associated with diverse slip directions and (2) both re- a strike-slip fault zone. This mechanism can explain events with verse and normal fault events exist. There are at least three possi- strike oblique to the general trend of a strike-slip fault. Examples of bilities to explain these observations. First, they may reflect the this kind are in the San Jacinto fault zone, such as events 22, 33, and roughness of the presumably low-angle shear surfaces. The undu- 36 (Fig. 1). In addition, in the area of complex fault geometry, both lation of the shear surface can provide apparent thrust-fault mech- normal and thrust faults can be caused by local block adjustments. anisms in some areas and normal-fault mechanisms in others. This These possible low-angle faults are generally shallow (around type of mechanism may explain the events with approximately the 5 km) in the ‘‘tail’’ region of the Sierra Nevada and near the western same strike and at about the same depth. Possible events of this kind margin of the Mojave Desert (Fig. 2). The motion there is of pri-

124 GEOLOGY, February 1996 Figure 2. Cross-section view of focal mechanisms and interpreted horizontal faults. Locations of these cross sections are shown in Figure 1. They are across western (A1-A2), central (B1-B2), eastern (C1-C2), and southern Sierra Nevada, and western Mojave desert (D1-D2). For simplicity, topography is omitted. APF—Arroyo Parida fault; BF—Banning fault; ORF—Oak Ridge fault; PMF— Pine Mountain fault; PT—Pleito thrust; RF—Raymond fault; SAF—San Andreas fault; SCIF—Santa Cruz Island fault; SMF—Sierra Madre fault; SYF—Santa Ynez fault; SJF is San Jacinto fault; SSNF is southern Sierra Nevada fault; NIF is Newport-Inglewood fault. marily east-west extension (Fig. 1). In contrast, the low-angle faults hazard information. Our data do not support the existence of a in the Transverse Ranges are deep (Ͼ10 km) (Fig. 2) and have slip regional-scale seismically active detachment in southern California. vectors indicative of a general north-south contraction (Fig. 1). The Only in the western Transverse Range, at a depth of about 13 to 14 movement directions from the fault-plane solutions in each of these km, is there some suggestion of a large detachment surface, as two regions are consistent with the surface geology. In the Penin- shown by a dashed curve in Figure 2. However, we cannot exclude sular Ranges and in the Salton Trough, complexity exists. The fault- the possibility that larger and deeper horizontal faults slip aseismi- plane solutions there indicate that both slip directions and focal cally. Jackson (1987) found that earthquakes on normal faults have depths vary. We prefer the low-angle fault planes to the high-angle dips between 30Њ and 60Њ and concluded that large earthquakes are ones because the high-angle fault planes are inconsistent with the unlikely to occur on low-angle normal faults in the areas where observed surface faults, either in strike, or in slip direction, or both. high-angle normal faults are seismically active. For example, in the southern Sierra Nevada and the southwestern margin of the Mojave Desert, the high-angle fault planes such as KINEMATICS events 7, 8, 14, 17, and 28 strike north-northeast to northeast, rather It is known that the seismogenic zone in southern California is than north-south, which is the general strike of the surface normal generally above 15 km, but locally extends down to 20 km and faults. deeper in the Transverse Ranges, indicating that the brittle-ductile On the basis of the above argument, we conclude that seismi- transition is deepest beneath the Transverse Ranges (Fig. 3). The cally active low-angle faults in southern California exist at different kinematic role of the brittle-ductile transition zone is somewhat depths and slip in various directions. They do not necessarily cor- speculative. It is argued that the middle crust can ﬂow over a long respond to the surface traces of the known active faults. Thus, the geological time scale (e.g., Thatcher, 1992). The lower crust may study of surface faults alone does not provide complete seismic behave plastically or ductilely because of high temperature (e.g.,

GEOLOGY, February 1996 125 ical properties of the lithosphere: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 88, p. 4183–4214. Crowell, J. C., 1974, Origin of late Cenozoic basins in southern California, in Dickinson, W. R., ed., Tectonics and sedimentation: Society of Eco- nomic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 22, p. 190–204. Davis, T. L., and Namson, J. S., 1994, A balanced cross-section of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, southern California: Nature, v. 372, p. 167–169. Davis, T. L., Namson, J., and Yerks, R. F., 1989, A cross section of the Los Angeles area: Seismically active fold and thrust belt, the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake and earthquake hazard: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 94, p. 9644–9664. Hadley, D. M., and Kanamori, H., 1977, Seismic structure of the Transverse Ranges, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 88, p. 1469–1478. Hadley, D. 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Dashed logical Society of America Bulletin, v. 76, p. 511–520 line in middle crust indicates brittle-ductile transitional zone. EF— Henrys, S. A., Levander, A. R., and Meltzer, A. S., 1993, Crustal structure Elsinore fault; NIF—Newport-Inglewood fault; SJF—San Jacinto fault. of the offshore southern Santa Maria basin and Transverse Ranges, southern California, from deep seismic reflection data: Journal of Geo- physical Research, v. 98, p. 8335–8348. Anderson, 1971; Hadley and Kanamori, 1977; Sibson, 1984; Hearn Huang, W., 1995, Seismic strain rates and the state of tectonic stress in the and Clayton, 1986), and hence is relatively weak; this accounts for southern California region [Ph.D. thesis]: Pasadena, California Institute the general absence of seismicity (Chen and Molnar, 1983). The of Technology, 197 p. Huang, W., Silver, L. 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