Joshua C. Spinler

Small‐scale upper mantle convection and crustal dynamics in southern California

We present numerical modeling of the forces acting on the base of the crust caused by small-scale convection of the upper mantle in southern California. Three-dimensional upper mantle shear wave velocity structure is mapped to three-dimensional density structure that is used to load a finite element model of instantaneous upper mantle flow with respect to a rigid crust, providing an estimate of the tractions acting on the base of the crust. Upwelling beneath the southern Walker Lane Belt and Salton Trough region and downwelling beneath the southern Great Valley and eastern and western Transverse Ranges dominate the upper mantle flow and resulting crustal tractions. Divergent horizontal and upward directed vertical tractions create a tensional to transtensional crustal stress state in the Walker Lane Belt and Salton Trough, consistent with transtensional tectonics in these areas. Convergent horizontal and downward directed vertical tractions in the Transverse Ranges cause approximately N–S crustal compression, consistent with active shortening and transpressional deformation near the “Big Bend” of the San Andreas fault. Model predictions of crustal dilatation and the forces acting on the Mojave block compare favorably with observations suggesting that small-scale upper mantle convection provides an important contribution to the sum of forces driving transpressional crustal deformation in southern California. Accordingly, the obliquity of the San Andreas fault with respect to plate motions may be considered a consequence, rather than a cause, of contractional deformation in the Transverse Ranges, itself driven by downwelling in the upper mantle superimposed on shear deformation caused by relative Pacific–North American plate motion.

Kinematic modeling of fault slip rates using new geodetic velocities from a transect across the Pacific-North America plate boundary through the San Bernardino Mountains, California

©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Campaign GPS data collected from 2002 to 2014 result in 41 new site velocities from the San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity. We combined these velocities with 93 continuous GPS velocities and 216 published velocities to obtain a velocity profile across the Pacific-North America plate boundary through the San Bernardino Mountains. We modeled the plate boundary-parallel, horizontal deformation with 5-14 parallel and one obliquely oriented screw dislocations within an elastic half-space. Our rate for the San Bernardino strand of the San Andreas Fault (6.5±3.6mm/yr) is consistent with recently published latest Quaternary rates at the 95% confidence level and is slower than our rate for the San Jacinto Fault (14.1±2.9mm/yr). Our modeled rate for all faults of the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ) combined (15.7±2.9mm/yr) is faster than the summed latest Quaternary rates for these faults, even when an estimate of permanent, off-fault deformation is included. The rate discrepancy is concentrated on faults near the 1992 Landers and 1999 Hector Mine earthquakes; the geodetic and geologic rates agree within uncertainties for other faults within the ECSZ. Coupled with the observation that postearthquake deformation is faster than the pre-1992 deformation, this suggests that the ECSZ geodetic-geologic rate discrepancy is directly related to the timing and location of these earthquakes and is likely the result of viscoelastic deformation in the mantle that varies over the timescale of an earthquake cycle, rather than a redistribution of plate boundary slip at a timescale of multiple earthquake cycles or longer.

Assessing long-term postseismic deformation following the M7.2 4 April 2010, El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake with implications for lithospheric rheology in the Salton Trough

The 4 April 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake provides the best opportunity to date to study the lithospheric response to a large (>M6) magnitude earthquake in the Salton Trough region through analysis of Global Positioning System (GPS) data. In conjunction with the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), we installed six new continuous GPS stations in the months following the EMC earthquake to increase station coverage in the epicentral region of northern Baja California, Mexico. We modeled the pre-EMC deformation field using available campaign and continuous GPS data for southern California and northern Baja California and inferred a pre-EMC secular rate at each new station location. Through direct comparison of the pre- and post-EMC secular rates, we calculate long-term changes associated with viscoelastic relaxation in the Salton Trough region. We fit these velocity changes using numerical models employing an elastic upper crustal layer underlain by a viscoelastic lower crustal layer and a mantle half-space. Forward models that produce the smallest weighted sum of squared residuals have an upper mantle viscosity in the range 4–6 × 1018 Pa s and a less well-resolved lower crustal viscosity in the range 2 × 1019 to 1 × 1022 Pa s. A high-viscosity lower crust, despite high heat flow in the Salton Trough region, is inconsistent with felsic composition and might suggest accretion of mafic lower crust associated with crustal spreading obscured by thick sedimentary cover.