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M.L. Zoback

Publications and source records attributed to M.L. Zoback.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

State of stress and modern deformation of the northern Basin and Range Province

Constraints on the current stress regime of the actively extending northern Basin and Range province are provided by deformation data (focal mechanisms and fault slip studies), hydraulic fracturing in situ stress measurements, borehole elongation (“breakouts”) analyses, and alignment of young volcanic vents. The integrated data indicate significant variations both in principal stress orientations and magnitudes. An approximately E-W least principal stress direction appears to characterize both the eastern and western margins of the Basin and Range province, whereas in the active interior parts of the province extension occurs in response to a least principal stress oriented NW to N60°W. The contrast in stress orientations between the province boundaries and in the interior suggests that along the margins the least principal stress direction may be locally controlled by the generally northerly trending profound lithospheric discontinuities associated with these margins. Active deformation along the southeastern and western province margins is characterized by a combination of strike-slip and normal faulting. Focal mechanisms along northeastern province margin (Wasatch front) and in central Nevada indicate a combination of normal and oblique-normal faulting. Temporal, regional, and depth-dependent variations in the relative magnitudes of the vertical and maximum horizontal stresses can explain much of the observed variations in deformation styles. However, some depth variation in faulting style inferred from focal mechanisms may be apparent and simply a function of the attitude of fault planes being reactivated. Evidence for significant temporal variation (or multiple cycles of variation) in relative stress magnitude comes from the Sierran front-Basin and Range boundary region where recent earthquakes are predominantly strike slip, whereas the profound relative vertical relief across the Sierra frontal fault zone in the last 9–10 m.y. implies a normal faulting stress regime. Using the best data on stress orientation, relative stress magnitudes are constrained from slip vectors of major earthquakes and young fault displacements. Analysis of well-constrained slip vectors in the Owens Valley, California, area indicate that large temporal variations in the magnitude of the approximately N-S oriented maximum horizontal stress are required to explain dominantly dip-slip and strike-slip offsets on subparallel faults. Similar faulting relations are observed throughout much of the boundary zone between the Basin and Range-Sierra Nevada (including the Walker Lane belt). Along the eastern province margin in the Wasatch front area in Utah, available data suggest that the maximum and minimum horizontal stresses may be approximately equal at depths of <4–5 km. Earthquake focal mechanisms in this area suggest more variability in relative magnitude of the two horizontal stresses with depth. Furthermore, superimposed sets of young fault striae along a segment of the Wasatch fault also indicate temporal variations of relative stress magnitudes. Sources of regional and temporal variations in the stress field may be linked to variable shear tractions applied to the base of the brittle crust related to intrusion, thermally induced flow, and the influence of the San Andreas plate boundary. Although difficult to date accurately, the fault slip data suggest that the temporal variations in relative magnitudes stress may occur on the time scale of both a single major earthquake cycle (1000–5000 years) and multiple earthquake cycles (10,000+ years).

Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth↗
USGS2010

Stress orientation determined from fault slip data in Hampel Wash area, Nevada, and its relation to contemporary regional stress field

Fault-slip data were collected from an area of relatively young faulting in a seismically active part of the Nevada Test Site 12 km NW of Mercury, Nevada. The data come primarily from intensely faulted Miocene tuffaceous sedimentary rocks in Hampel Wash, which is bounded on the north by the Quaternary ENE trending Rock Valley fault and on the south by a parallel unnamed fault. Data from faults with known sense of displacement exhibit a bimodal distribution of slip angles (rakes). Faults exhibiting steep rakes (typically 75° to 90°) cluster about a N30°–35°E strike; most dip 65° to 80°. Faults having shallow rakes (generally less than 20°) exhibit a wide range of strikes (from N6°W to N80°E) and mostly dip between 80° and 90°. The predominant N30°–35°E strike of the steep-rake faults and the quasi-conjugate nature of a consistent subset of the shallowrake faults suggest a maximum horizontal stress orientation of about N30°–35°E and a least horizontal principal stress direction of N55°–60°W. Analysis of the data using a least squares iterative inversion to determine a mean deviatoric principal stress tensor indicates a normal-faulting stress regime (S 1 vertical) with principal stress axes in approximately horizontal and vertical directions (S 1 , trend = N 19°E and plunge = 82°N; S 2 , N30°E and 8°S; and S 3 , N60°W and 2°E). The maximum horizontal stress, S 2 , was found to be nearly intermediate in magnitude between S 1 and S 3 . The N60°W least horizontal principal stress orientation obtained from the fault-slip inversion agrees with our geometric analysis of the data and is consistent with a modern least horizontal principal stress orientation of N50°–70°W inferred from earthquake focal mechanisms, well bore breakouts, and hydraulic fracturing measurements in the vicinity of the Nevada Test Site. This solution fits all the data well, except for a subset of strike-slip faults that strike N30°–45°E, subparallel to the normal faults of the data set. Nearly pure dip-slip and pure strike-slip movement on similarly oriented faults, however, cannot be accommodated in a single stress regime. Superposed sets of striae observed on some faults suggest temporal rotations of the regional stress field or local rotations within the region of the fault zone.

Nevada↗
USGS2010

Lithospheric buoyancy and continental intraplate stresses

Lithospheric buoyancy, the product of lithospheric density and thickness, is an important physical property that influences both the long-term stability of continents and their state of stress. We have determined lithospheric buoyancy by applying the simple isostatic model of Lachenbruch and Morgan (1990). We determine the crustal portion of lithospheric buoyancy using the USGS global database of more than 1700 crustal structure determinations (Mooney et al., 2002), which demonstrates that a simple relationship between crustal thickness and surface elevation does not exist. In fact, major regions of the crust at or near sea level (0-200 m elevation) have crustal thicknesses that vary between 25 and 55 km. Predicted elevations due to the crustal component of buoyancy in the model exceed observed elevations in nearly all cases (97% of the data), consistent with the existence of a cool lithospheric mantle lid that is denser than the asthenosphere on which it floats. The difference between the observed and predicted crustal elevation is assumed to be equal to the decrease in elevation produced by the negative buoyancy of the mantle lid. Mantle lid thickness was first estimated from the mantle buoyancy and a mean lid density computed using a basal crust temperature determined from extrapolation of surface heat flow, assuming a linear thermal gradient in the mantle lid. The resulting values of total lithosphere thickness are in good agreement with thicknesses estimated from seismic data, except beneath cratonic regions where they are only 40-60% of the typical estimates (200-350 km) derived from seismic data. This inconsistency is compatible with petrologic data and tomography and geoid analyses that have suggested that cratonic mantle lids are ??? 1% less dense than mantle lids elsewhere. By lowering the thermally determined mean mantle lid density in cratons by 1%, our model reproduces the observed 200-350+ km cratonic lithospheric thickness. We then computed gravitational potential energy by taking a vertical integral over the computed lithosphere density. Our computed values suggest that the thick roots beneath cratons lead to strong negative potential energy differences relative to surrounding regions, and hence exert compressive stresses superimposed on the intraplate stresses derived from plate boundary forces. Forces related to this lithosphere structure thus may explain the dominance of reverse-faulting earthquakes in cratons. Areas of high elevation and a thin mantle lid (e.g., western U.S. Basin and Range, East African rift, and Baikal rift) are predicted to be in extension, consistent with the observed stress regime in these areas.

International Geology Review↗
USGS2007

Lithosphere stress and deformation

After several decades of investigation, a surprisingly simple view of the lithospheric state of stress has emerged. Broad regions of the lithosphere (scales up to thousands of kilometers) are characterized by remarkably uniform stress fields, both in terms of orientations and relative magnitudes. There is a strong correlation between observed intraplate stress orientations and orientations predicted by models of the plate-driving forces acting on the plate geometry, suggesting that the same forces that drive the plates also stress their interiors. Lateral variations in density and thickness of the crust and lithosphere give rise to gravitational potential energy differences that locally induce forces comparable in magnitude to plate-driving forces. In addition, mantle density inhomogeneities may also influence lithospheric stresses through the linkage of mantle flow. Direct measurements of stress magnitudes at depth indicate that the brittle crust is in a state of ‘frictional faulting equilibrium’, that is, the stress differences are close to, and limited by, the stress levels required to induce slip on the most well-oriented pre-exising planes. This characteristic of ‘critically stressed crust’ stress applies equally well to active plate boundary regions as well as ‘stable’ intraplate regions, indicating that stress differences at depth are comparable in these very distinct tectonic provinces. The difference in deformation between the two provinces is simply the rate of deformation, primarily controlled by the integrated strength of the lithosphere. Warmer, weaker lithosphere (such as along plate boundaries) will deform about eight orders of magnitude more rapidly than old, cold lithosphere in the interior of plates.

Book chapter↗
USGS2006

The Hayward fault

This field guide consists of eleven stops at sites that illustrate the geological, geophysical, geographic, and engineering aspects of the Hayward fault in the East Bay. Section I (Stops 1–4) consists of stops that are part of the University of California at Berkeley (UC-Berkeley), including research facilities, retrofit of campus buildings, and geomorphic features along the fault. Section II (Stops 5 and 6) consists of stops along the Hayward fault north of the UC-Berkeley main campus, and Section III (stops 7–11) consists of stops related to the Hayward fault south of the UC-Berkeley main campus (Fig. 1 ). Stops are designed to illustrate geomorphic features of the fault, the effects of fault creep on structures sited on the fault, and retrofit design of structures to mitigate potential future deformation due to fault rupture.

California↗
USGS2006

The 1906 earthquake and a century of progress in understanding earthquakes and their hazards

The 18 April 1906 San Francisco earthquake killed nearly 3000 people and left 225,000 residents homeless. Three days after the earthquake, an eight-person Earthquake Investigation Commission composed of 25 geologists, seismologists, geodesists, biologists and engineers, as well as some 300 others started work under the supervision of Andrew Lawson to collect and document physical phenomena related to the quake . On 31 May 1906, the commission published a preliminary 17-page report titled "The Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission". The report included the bulk of the geological and morphological descriptions of the faulting, detailed reports on shaking intensity, as well as an impressive atlas of 40 oversized maps and folios. Nearly 100 years after its publication, the Commission Report remains a model for post-earthquake investigations. Because the diverse data sets were so complete and carefully documented, researchers continue to apply modern analysis techniques to learn from the 1906 earthquake. While the earthquake marked a seminal event in the history of California, it served as impetus for the birth of modern earthquake science in the United States.

GSA Today↗
USGS2004

Stress field variations in the Swiss Alps and the northern Alpine foreland derived from inversion of fault plane solutions

This study is devoted to a systematic analysis of the state of stress of the central European Alps and northern Alpine foreland in Switzerland based on focal mechanisms of 138 earthquakes with magnitudes between 1 and 5. The most robust feature of the results is that the azimuth of the minimum compressive stress, S 3 , is generally well constrained for all data subsets and always lies in the NE quadrant. However, within this quadrant, the orientation of S 3 changes systematically both along the structural strike of the Alpine chain and across it. The variation in stress along the mountain belt from NE to SW involves a progressive, counterclockwise rotation of S 3 and is most clear in the foreland, where it amounts to 45°–50°. This pattern of rotation is compatible with the disturbance to the stress field expected from the indentation of the Adriatic Block into the central European Plate, possibly together with buoyancy forces arising from the strongly arcuate structure of the Moho to the immediate west of our study area. Across the Alps, the variation in azimuth of S 3 is defined by a progressive, counterclockwise rotation of about 45° from the foreland in the north across the Helvetic domain to the Penninic nappes in the south and is accompanied by a change from a slight predominance of strike-slip mechanisms in the foreland to a strong predominance of normal faulting in the high parts of the Alps. The observed rotation can be explained by the perturbation of the large-scale regional stress by a local uniaxial deviatoric tension with a magnitude similar to that of the regional differential stress and with an orientation perpendicular to the strike of the Alpine belt. The tensile nature and orientation of this stress is consistent with the “spreading” stress expected from lateral density changes due to a crustal root beneath the Alps.

European Alps↗
USGS1999

Abrupt along-strike change in tectonic style: San Andreas fault zone, San Francisco Peninsula

Seismicity and high-resolution aeromagnetic data are used to define an abrupt change from compressional to extensional tectonism within a 10- to 15-km-wide zone along the San Andreas fault on the San Francisco Peninsula and offshore from the Golden Gate. This 100-km-long section of the San Andreas fault includes the hypocenter of the M w = 7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake as well as the highest level of persistent microseismicity along that ∼470-km-long rupture. We define two distinct zones of deformation along this stretch of the fault using well-constrained relocations of all post-1969 earthquakes based a joint one-dimensional velocity/hypocenter inversion and a redetermination of focal mechanisms. The southern zone is characterized by thrust- and reverse-faulting focal mechanisms with NE trending P axes that indicate “fault-normal” compression in 7- to 10-km-wide zones of deformation on both sides of the San Andreas fault. A 1- to 2-km-wide vertical zone beneath the surface trace of the San Andreas is characterized by its almost complete lack of seismicity. The compressional deformation is consistent with the young, high topography of the Santa Cruz Mountains/Coast Ranges as the San Andreas fault makes a broad restraining left bend (∼10°) through the southernmost peninsula. A zone of seismic quiescence ∼15 km long separates this compressional zone to the south from a zone of combined normal-faulting and strike-slip-faulting focal mechanisms (including a M L = 5.3 earthquake in 1957) on the northernmost peninsula and offshore on the Golden Gate platform. Both linear pseudogravity gradients, calculated from the aeromagnetic data, and seismic reflection data indicate that the San Andreas fault makes an abrupt ∼3-km right step less than 5 km offshore in this northern zone. A similar right-stepping (dilatational) geometry is also observed for the subparallel San Gregorio fault offshore. Persistent seismicity and extensional tectonism occur within the San Andreas right stepover region and at least 15 km along-strike both to the SE and NW. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake may have nucleated within the San Andreas right stepover, which may help explain the bilateral nature of rupture of this event. Our analysis suggests two seismic hazards for the San Francisco Peninsula in addition to the hazard associated with a M = 7 to 8 strike-slip earthquake along the San Andreas fault: the potential for a M ≈ 6 normal-faulting earthquake just 5–8 km west of San Francisco and a M = 6+ thrust faulting event in the southern peninsula.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1999

The San Andreas fault in the San Francisco Bay region, California: Structure and kinematics of a Young plate boundary

Recently acquired high-resolution aeromagnetic data delineate offset and/or truncated magnetic rock bodies of the Franciscan Complex that define the location and structure of, and total offset across, the San Andreas fault in the San Francisco Bay region. Two distinctive magnetic anomalies caused by ultramafic rocks and metabasalts east of, and truncated at, the San Andreas fault have clear counterparts west of the fault that indicate a total right-lateral offset of only 22 km on the Peninsula segment, the active strand that ruptured in 1906. The location of the Peninsula segment is well defined magnetically on the northern peninsula where it goes offshore, and can be traced along strike an additional ~6 km to the northwest. Just offshore from Lake Merced, the inferred fault trace steps right (northeast) 3 km onto a nearly parallel strand that can be traced magnetically northwest more than 20 km as the linear northeast edge of a magnetic block bounded by the San Andreas fault, the Pilarcitos fault, and the San Gregorio-Hosgri fault zone. This right-stepping strand, the Golden Gate segment, joins the eastern mapped trace of the San Andreas fault at Bolinas Lagoon and projects back onshore to the southeast near Lake Merced. Inversion of detailed gravity data on the San Francisco Peninsula reveals a 3 km wide basin situated between the two strands of the San Andreas fault, floored by Franciscan basement and filled with Plio-Quaternary sedimentary deposits of the Merced and Colma formations. The basin, ~1 km deep at the coast, narrows and becomes thinner to the southeast along the fault over a distance of ~12 km. The length, width, and location of the basin between the two strands are consistent with a pull-apart basin formed behind the right step in the right-lateral strike-slip San Andreas fault system and currently moving southeast with the North American plate. Slight nonparallelism of the two strands bounding the basin (implying a small component of convergence with continued strike-slip movement) may explain the progressive narrowing of the basin to the southeast and the puzzling recent uplift of the Merced Formation in a predominantly extensional (pull-apart basin) setting. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake may have nucleated within the step-over region, and the step-over places a strand of the San Andreas fault 3 km closer to downtown San Francisco than previously thought.

International Geology Review↗
USGS1997

Three-dimensional upper crustal velocity structure beneath San Francisco Peninsula, California

This paper presents new seismic data from, and crustal models of the San Francisco Peninsula. In much of central California the San Andreas fault juxtaposes the Cretaceous granitic Salinian terrane on its west and the Late Mesozoic/Early Tertiary Franciscan Complex on its east. On San Francisco Peninsula, however, the present-day San Andreas fault is completely within a Franciscan terrane, and the Pilarcitos fault, located southwest of the San Andreas, marks the Salinian-Franciscan boundary. This circumstance has evoked two different explanations: either the Pilarcitos is a thrust fault that has pushed Franciscan rocks over Salinian rocks or the Pilarcitos is a transform fault that has accommodated significant right-lateral slip. In an effort to better resolve the subsurface structure of the peninsula faults, we established a temporary network of 31 seismographs arrayed across the San Andreas fault and the subparallel Pilarcitos fault at ∼1–2 km spacings. These instruments were deployed during the first 6 months of 1995 and recorded local earthquakes, air gun sources set off in San Francisco Bay, and explosive sources. Travel times from these sources were used to augment earthquake arrival times recorded by the Northern California Seismic Network and were inverted for three-dimensional velocity structure. Results show lateral velocity changes at depth (∼0.5–7 km) that correlate with downward vertical projections of the surface traces of the San Andreas and Pilarcitos faults. We thus interpret the faults as high-angle to vertical features (constrained to a 70°–110° dip range). From this we conclude that the Pilarcitos fault is probably an important strike-slip fault that accommodated much of the right-lateral plate boundary strain on the peninsula prior to the initiation of the modern-day San Andreas fault in this region sometime after about 3.0 m.y. ago.

Journal of Geophysical Research B: Solid Earth↗
USGS1994

The magnitude 6.7 Northridge, California, earthquake of 17 January 1994

The most costly American earthquake since 1906 struck Los Angeles on 17 January 1994. The magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake resulted from more than 3 meters of reverse slip on a 15-kilometer-long south-dipping thrust fault that raised the Santa Susana mountains by as much as 70 centimeters. The fault appears to be truncated by the fault that broke in the 1971 San Fernando earthquake at a depth of 8 kilometers. Of these two events, the Northridge earthquake caused many times more damage, primarily because its causative fault is directly under the city. Many types of structures were damaged, but the fracture of welds in steel-frame buildings was the greatest surprise. The Northridge earthquake emphasizes the hazard posed to Los Angeles by concealed thrust faults and the potential for strong ground shaking in moderate earthquakes.

Los Angeles↗
USGS1994

The northern Nevada rift: Regional tectono-magmatic relations and Middle Miocene stress direction

As defined by the most recent aeromagnetic surveys, the north-northwest-trending northern Nevada rift zone extends for at least 500 km from southern Nevada to the Oregon Nevada border. At several places along the rift, the magnetic anomaly is clearly related to north-northwest-trending dikes and flows that, based on new radiometric dating, erupted between 17 and 14 Ma and probably during an even shorter time interval. The tectonic significance of the rift is dramatized by its length, its coincidence in time and space (at its northern terminus) with the oldest silicic caldera complex along the Yellowstone hot-spot trend, and its parallelism with the subduction zone along the North American coast prior to the establishment of the San Andreas fault.

Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
USGS1991

Stress magnitudes in the crust: constraints from stress orientation and relative magnitude data

The World Stress Map Project is a global cooperative effort to compile and interpret data on the orientation and relative magnitudes of the contemporary in situ tectonic stress field in the Earth's lithosphere. The intraplate stress field in both the oceans and continents is largely compressional with one or both of the horizontal stresses greater than the vertical stress. The regionally uniform horizontal intraplate stress orientations are generally consistent with either relative or absolute plate motions indicating that plate-boundary forces dominate the stress distribution within the plates. Current models of stresses due to whole mantle flow inferred from seismic topography models predict a general compressional stress state within continents but do not match the broad-scale horizontal stress orientations. The broad regionally uniform intraplate stress orientations are best correlated with compressional plate-boundary forces and the geometry of the plate boundaries. -from Authors

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A:↗
USGS1987

New evidence on the state of stress of the San Andreas fault system

Contemporary in situ tectonic stress indicators along the San Andreas fault system in central California show northeast-directed horizontal compression that is nearly perpendicular to the strike of the fault. Such compression explains recent uplift of the Coast Ranges and the numerous active reverse faults and folds that trend nearly parallel to the San Andreas and that are otherwise unexplainable in terms of strike-slip deformation. Fault-normal crustal compression in central California is proposed to result from the extremely low shear strength of the San Andreas and the slightly convergent relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates. Preliminary in situ stress data from the Cajon Pass scientific drill hole (located 3.6 kilometers northeast of the San Andreas in southern California near San Bernardino, California) are also consistent with a weak fault, as they show no right-lateral shear stress at ∼2-kilometer depth on planes parallel to the San Andreas fault.

California↗