Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
Geology Signup for GSW Email News
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Geology; August 1993; v. 21; no. 8; p. 755-758; DOI: 10.1130/0091-7613(1993)021<0755:OTNOBI>2.3.CO;2
© 1993 Geological Society of America
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beck, M. E.
Right arrow Articles by Cembrano, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

On the nature of buttressing in margin-parallel strike-slip fault systems

M. E. Beck , Jr.1, Constanza Rojas1 and Jose Cembrano1

1 Department of Geology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225

Margin-parallel strike-slip faults commonly develop along convergent plate margins where an oceanic plate subducts obliquely beneath a continental plate. Such faults detach a "sliver" of continental crust from the leading edge of the overriding plate; fault motion then causes the sliver to move parallel to the continental margin, in the direction of the transverse component of relative plate motion. However, few slivers move as rapidly as predicted by simple analyses of the forces acting on them. This discrepancy must be due principally to the "buttress effect": resistance to displacement of the sliver arising from a space problem at its leading edge. More simply, a sliver can move only if it has somewhere to go. Buttresses can be geometrical (as when the continental margin changes trend abruptly), or they can arise from changes in the physical properties of the overriding plate or in other factors (such as subduction angle and angle of obliquity) that help determine whether sliver motion will occur. A strongly buttressed sliver will move only insofar as the buttress can be overcome. Obvious ways in which a buttress can be overcome are by thickening the crust or widening the sliver. Examples of both are known. Crustal thickening entails elevation increase; sliver motion is opposed by both gravity and friction. Widening the sliver is a more complex process that results in areas of extension and compression forming within the sliver, as well as a characteristic pattern of overlapping, curved fault segments. This latter response may be the cause of curvature in many strike-slip fault systems.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Geological Society of America BulletinHome page
S. N. Thomson
Late Cenozoic geomorphic and tectonic evolution of the Patagonian Andes between latitudes 42{degrees}S and 46{degrees}S: An appraisal based on fission-track results from the transpressional intra-arc Liquine-Ofqui fault zone
Geological Society of America Bulletin, September 1, 2002; 114(9): 1159 - 1173.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of AmericaHome page
W. D. Stanley, S. Y. Johnson, A. I. Qamar, C. S. Weaver, and J. M. Williams
Tectonics and seismicity of the southern Washington Cascade Range
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, February 1, 1996; 86(1A): 1 - 18.
[Abstract] [PDF]


JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Geological Society of America