An earthquake is a mechanism of stress release along plate boundaries due to relative motion between the Earth's lithospheric blocks. The period in which stresses are accruing across the plate boundary is known as the interseismic portion of the earthquake cycle. This dissertation focuses on interseismic portion of the earthquake cycle to extract characteristics of fault, shear zone and rock properties. Global Positioning System (GPS) data are used to observe the pattern of deformation across two primarily strike-slip fault systems: the Carrizo Segment of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) and the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ). Two sets of GPS data are processed, analyzed and applied to analytic and numerical models describing the interseismic behavior of the earthquake cycle. The Carrizo segment is mature (i.e., had many earthquakes) and has juxtaposed terrains with varying rock properties laterally across the fault system. Lateral variations in rock properties affect the pattern of deformation around strike-slip faults and affect how surrounding rock deforms and if not considered may bias the interpretation of the faulted system. The Carrizo segment separates Franciscan terrain northeast of the fault from Salinian block to the southwest. GPS data are well fit to a model with a 15-25 km weak zone northeast of the Carrizo segment. The long-term slip rate estimated on the SAF is 34-38 mm/yr, with 2-4 mm/yr accommodated on faults to the west. The viscosity for the combined lower crust/upper mantle is estimated at 2-5x10^19 Pa s. This model is consistent with the distribution of rock type and corresponding laboratory data on their material properties, paleoseismic, seismic and magnetotelluric data. The ECSZ is a young (<10 >Myr) system of strike-slip faults including the Owens Valley - Airport Lake, Panamint Valley - Ash Hill - Hunter Mountain and Death Valley - Furnace Creek fault systems. The ECSZ study concentrates on fault evolution by finding the current position of maximum shear across the shear zone and estimating fault rates. Geologic studies suggest that the Death Valley - Furnace Creek fault system on eastern end of the ECSZ was the primary accommodator of slip early in the ECSZ history. This study suggests that the current locus of shear has shifted westward, and resides in the center of the ECSZ under the Panamint Valley - Ash Hill -Hunter Mountain fault system. The model dependent estimated geodetic rate of the Ash Hill - Panamint Valley -Hunter Mountain fault system (4.91-6.11 mm/yr) is faster than geologic estimates (1.6 - 4 mm/yr). The result is interpreted as a simplification of the ECSZ with time, combined with progressive westward migration of deformation. The best estimate for a combined rate across the shear zone is 10 mm/yr (20% of total Pacific-North America motion). The summation of rates obtained by this study is 49 mm/yr, well within estimates obtained by previous studies using independent techniques.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-185). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Numerical simulations of a 15° restraining bend analog claybox experiment include considering the fault geometry, rheology, and boundary conditions. The numerical models show that a growing fault from an analog experiment propagates at depth rather than at the surface and is exposed in later stages of the experiment, and that the wet kaolin clay from the analog experiment is partially decoupled from the steel plate. The numerical models provide the stresses to predict accurate fault growth from the analog experiment and provide the evolution of external work within the fault system. The external work from the numerical models decrease as faults continue to grow, which agrees with the continuously increasing kinematic efficiency within the analog experiment. Three-dimensional mechanical models are used to simulate the southern San Andreas fault. These models show that incorporating fault interaction, time since last earthquake rupture, and nearby earthquakes affects the stress state along a fault. Absolute shear tractions are calculated by multiplying time since last earthquake rupture with the simulated interseismic stressing rates for each fault strand. From our multi-cycle model, fault interaction affects local normal stressing rates so that the stresses are not relieved in between earthquakes. We provide our absolute shear tractions and scale our multi-cycle normal stressing rates to be near to failure so that dynamic rupture modelers from University of California, Riverside use our results to simulate earthquake propagation for the complex fault region of the San Gorgonio Pass.

Master of Science / Geology / Joel Q. Spencer / Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is a relatively new dating method, tangibly introduced in 1985 when Huntley et al. demonstrated the ability to use light-sensitive traps to measure radiation exposure and determine the age of sediment. Quartz and feldspar grains are commonly used for the method, with quartz receiving significantly more attention than feldspars until the past decade. Recent research has improved the practicality of using feldspars as a reliable dosimeter –an appealing notion as the intrinsic properties of feldspars allow them to date older sediment that may lie beyond the reliable range of quartz dosimetry. This work explores and utilizes the contemporary feldspar technique termed post-infrared, high-temperature infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR) dating to add to the existing knowledge base of this method, particularly by testing different preheat and measurement temperature combinations. Analysis of the each pIRIR method indicates that the pIRIR signal stimulated at 225°C is more appropriate for dating than the pIRIR signal stimulated at 290°C. Techniques and protocols developed in this work are done so via their application to a marine terrace that is displaced by the San Andreas Fault. Corals from the terrace along the Pacific plate, dated with U-series by Muhs et al. (2002), offer an age estimate. Comparison of the pIRIR ages to the U-series ages yield an underestimation, suggesting the pIRIR method may be more useful as a means of correlating terraces across the fault, than for providing ages of terrace formation.

The Little San Bernardino Mountains (LSBM) Fault Set are N-S dextral faults, east of the restraining bend of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) in southern California, that may form a tectonic linkage between the SAF and the Eastern California Shear Zone. The NW LSBM are a complexly deformed structural domain characterized by the young N-S dextral faults and older NW-oriented Dillon Shear Zone faults. Before the 1992 Joshua Tree (Mw 6.1) and Landers (Mw 7.3) earthquakes, the rugged NW LSBM was the subject of few geologic studies. This bedrock mapping study has further delineated the geometry, distribution, and relative chronology of brittle structures. A 2015 NCALM award of 51 km2 of lidar imagery on Eureka Peak Fault was used to correct fault locations. Bedrock mapping in the epicentral areas of the 1992 Joshua Tree earthquake on Eureka Peak Fault and Landers aftershocks (Mw 5.7, 5.8) focused on the brittle structures of the evolving fault systems and potential connections with historic seismicity. The N-S dextral fault offsets from west to east are; Long Canyon (470 m), Wide Canyon (~150- 340 m), Eureka Peak (~ 225 m), California Riding Trail (850-965 m) and Deerhorn (105 m) faults with a cumulative offset of approximately 2 km. Dolomitic marble, clinopyroxene-hornblende skarn, garnet-epidote skarn and gabbro-diorite intruded by monzogranite are key lithologies used in determining offsets. Joshua Tree Fault, defined by seismicity by Kaven and Pollard (2013) is supported by additional mapped fault data. A “new” fault (Black Rock Canyon) links Wide Canyon and northern Eureka Peak faults. The distribution of aftershock seismicity plotted by depth and latitude along the N-S faults, a prominent broad seismicity trend and bedrock mapping are all consistent with interpreting the N-S faults as an incipient set of faults developing upward from a deeper through-going crustal shear zone. The seismicity since the onset of the Joshua Tree- Landers earthquake sequence on April 23, 1992, forms two distinct trends. Temporally these two trends occurred in sequence; first a N-propagating trend April 23- mid-June along Joshua Tree Fault from the Joshua Tree earthquake epicenter to north of the Pinto Mountain Fault, and secondly a prominent SE trend of Landers aftershocks (including Mw 5.7, 5.8) June 28 onwards, from the Landers earthquake epicenter, along Eureka Peak Fault to the SAF. AFT and (U-Th)/He thermochronology indicate an abrupt boundary on Long Canyon Fault between rapid uplift within ~ 12 km of the SAF and slower uplift more than 12 km north. This boundary is projected along the Dillon Shear Zone structural grain to the 1992 Joshua Tree earthquake epicenter on southern Eureka Peak Fault, dividing the N-striking faults into northern and southern domains. The 14.7 km hypocentral depth of the Joshua Tree earthquake coincides roughly with the depth of the NE dipping SAF intersection with Eureka Peak Fault, forming a hypothesized flower structure which is consistent with rapid uplift of the LSBM escarpment near the SAF. The LSBM Fault Set may be initiated by the upward migration of a through-going mid-crustal break and eastern migration of the current SAF trace bypassing the Big Bend slip impediment. Eureka Peak Fault with a slip rate of 10-20 mm/yr, is the proposed structure tectonically linking the SAF and the Eastern California Shear Zone.

It has always been enigmatic which processes control the accretion of the North American terranes towards the Pacific plate and the landward migration of the San Andreas plate boundary. One of the theories suggests that the Pacific plate first cools and captures the uprising mantle in the slab window, and then it causes the accretion of the continental crustal blocks. The alternative theory attributes the accretion to the capture of Farallon plate fragments (microplates) stalled in the ceased Farallon-North America subduction zone. Quantitative judgement between these two end-member concepts requires a 3D thermomechanical numerical modeling. However, the software tool required for such modeling is not available at present in the geodynamic modeling community. The major aim of the presented work is comprised basically of two interconnected tasks. The first task is the development and testing of the research Finite Element code with sufficiently advanced facilities to perform the three-dimensional geological time scale simulations of lithospheric deformation. The second task consists in the application of the developed tool to the Neogene deformations of the crust and the mantle along the San Andreas Fault System in Central and northern California. The geological time scale modeling of lithospheric deformation poses numerous conceptual and implementation challenges for the software tools. Among them is the necessity to handle the brittle-ductile transition within the single computational domain, adequately represent the rock rheology in a broad range of temperatures and stresses, and resolve the extreme deformations of the free surface and internal boundaries. In the framework of this thesis the new Finite Element code (SLIM3D) has been successfully developed and tested. This code includes a coupled thermo-mechanical treatment of deformation processes and allows for an elasto-visco-plastic rheology with diffusion, dislocation and Peierls creep mechanisms and Mohr-Coulomb plasticity. The code incorporates an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation with free surface and Winkler boundary conditions. The modeling technique developed is used to study the aspects influencing the Neogene lithospheric deformation in central and northern California. The model setup is focused on the interaction between three major tectonic elements in the region: the North America plate, the Pacific plate and the Gorda plate, which join together near the Mendocino Triple Junction. Among the modeled effects is the influence of asthenosphere upwelling in the opening slab window on the overlying North American plate. The models also incorporate the captured microplate remnants in the fossil Farallon subduction zone, simplified subducting Gorda slab, and prominent crustal heterogeneity such as the Salinian block. The results show that heating of the mantle roots beneath the older fault zones and the transpression related to fault stepping, altogether, render cooling in the slab window alone incapable to explain eastward migration of the plate boundary. From the viewpoint of the thermomechanical modeling, the results confirm the geological concept, which assumes that a series of microplate capture events has been the primary reason of the inland migration of the San Andreas plate boundary over the recent 20 Ma. The remnants of the Farallon slab, stalled in the fossil subduction zone, create much stronger heterogeneity in the mantle than the cooling of the uprising asthenosphere, providing the more efficient and direct way for transferring the North American terranes to Pacific plate. The models demonstrate that a high effective friction coefficient on major faults fails to predict the distinct zones of strain localization in the brittle crust. The magnitude of friction coefficient inferred from the modeling is about 0.075, which is far less than typical values 0.6 – 0.8 obtained by variety of borehole stress measurements and laboratory data. Therefore, the model results presented in this thesis provide additional independent constrain which supports the “weak-fault” hypothesis in the long-term ongoing debate over the strength of major faults in the SAFS. / Seit jeher rätselhaft sind die Prozesse, die die Akkretion der Nordamerikanischen Terranen in Richtung der Pazifischen Platte sowie die Wanderung der Plattengrenze der San-Andreas-Verwerfung in Richtung Festland bestimmen. Eine Theorie besagt, dass sich die Pazifische Platte erst abkühlt und den aufsteigenden Mantel im „Slab Window“ fängt und somit die Akkretion der kontinentalen Krustenblöcke bewirkt. Die andere Theorie geht von einer Akkretion durch das Fangen von Teilen der Farallon-Platte (Mikroplatten) aus, die in der inaktiven nordamerikanischen Farallon-Subduktionszone fest stecken. Die quantitative Beurteilung dieser beiden gegensätzlichen Konzepte erfordert eine thermomechanische numerische 3-D-Modellierung. Das dafür benötigte Software Tool steht jedoch der geodynamischen Modellierung derzeit noch nicht zur Verfügung. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Arbeit umfasst im Wesentlichen zwei miteinander verbundene Aufgaben. Die erste besteht in der Entwicklung und Erprobung des Finite-Element-Codes, dessen Eigenschaften den hohen Anforderungen an die Ausführung der dreidimensionalen Simulationen lithosphärischer Deformation auf geologischer Zeitskala gerecht werden müssen. Die zweite Aufgabe ist die Anwendung des entwickelten Tools auf die neogenen Deformationen der Kruste und des Mantels entlang der San-Andreas-Verwerfung in Zentral- und Nordkalifornien. Die Modellierung auf geologischer Zeitskala lithosphärischer Deformation bringt für die Software Tools in Bezug auf Konzept und Durchführung zahlreiche Herausforderungen mit sich. Unter anderem gilt es, den Brittle-Ductile-Übergang in einem einzigen Modell sowie die Gesteinsrheologie in einer breiten Spanne unterschiedlicher Temperaturen und Spannungen adäquat darzustellen und die extremen Deformationen der freien Oberfläche und internen Grenzen aufzulösen. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit erfolgte die erfolgreiche Entwicklung und Erprobung des neuen Finite-Element-Codes (SLIM3D). Dieser Code beinhaltet eine gekoppelte thermomechanische Behandlung von Deformationsprozessen und ermöglicht eine elasto-visko-plastische Rheologie mit Diffusion, Dislokation, Peierls Kriechmechanismen und Mohr-Coulomb-Plastizität. Der Code verbindet eine Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian kinematische Formulierung mit freien Oberflächen- und Winkler-Randbedingungen. Das entwickelte Modellierungsverfahren wird für die Untersuchung der Aspekte verwendet, die die neogene lithosphärische Deformation in Zentral- und Nordkalifornien beeinflussen. Die Modellanordnung konzentriert sich auf die Interaktion zwischen drei großen tektonischen Elementen in dieser Region: die Nordamerikanische Platte, die Pazifische Platte sowie die Gorda-Platte, die sich in der Mendocino-Triple-Junction treffen. Unter anderem verdeutlicht die Modellierung den Einfluss des Aufsteigens der Asthenosphäre in das sich öffnende „slab window“ der übergelagerten Nordamerikanischen Platte. Die Modelle beziehen auch die angelagerten Überreste der Mikroplatten in der fossilen Farallon-Subduktionszone, die vereinfachte subduzierende Gorda-Platte sowie markante Heterogenitäten der Kruste, wie beispielsweise den „Salinian Block“, mit ein. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Erwärmung der Mantellithosphäre unter den älteren Störungszonen sowie die Transpression eine Abkühlung im „Slab Window“ als alleinige Begründung für die Ostwärtsbewegung der Plattengrenze nicht zulassen. Aus Sicht der thermomechanischen Modellierung bestätigen die Ergebnisse das geologische Konzept, welches durch das mehrmalige Fangen von Mikroplatten den Hauptgrund für die Wanderung der Plattengrenze der San-Andreas-Verwerfung in Richtung Festland über die letzten 20 Millionen Jahre sieht. Die Überreste der Farallon-Platte, die in der fossilen Subduktionszone gefangen sind, verursachen im Mantel eine wesentlich stärkere Heterogenität als die Abkühlung der Asthenosphäre und stellen somit den effizienteren und direkteren Weg für die Anlagerung der nordamerikanischen Gebiete an die Pazifische Platte dar. Die Modelle demonstrieren, dass ein hoher effektiver Reibungskoeffizient an großen Störungen nicht in der Lage ist, die eindeutigen Zonen der Dehnungslokalisierung in der spröden Kruste vorherzusagen. Die Größe des Reibungskoeffizienten, die sich aus der Modellierung ableitet, beträgt etwa 0,075 und ist damit wesentlich kleiner als die durch unterschiedliche Bohrlochmessungen und Labordaten ermittelten Spannungswerte zwischen 0,6 und 0,8. Daher liefern die in dieser Arbeit präsentierten Ergebnisse der Modelle in der seit langem geführten Debatte über die Stärke von großen Störungen in der San-Andreas-Verwerfung eine zusätzliche unabhängige Begründung der „Weak-Fault“-Hypothese.

The surface expression of upper crustal deformation varies widely based on geologic settings. Normal faults within an intra-arc basin, strike-slip faulting within a wide shear zone, and creeping fault behavior all manifest differently and require a variety of techniques for analysis. In this dissertation I studied three different actively deforming regions across a variety of geologic settings. First, I explored the drivers of extension within the La Pine graben in the Oregon Cascades. I mapped >20 new Quaternary faults and conducted paleoseismic trenching, where I found evidence for a mid-late Holocene earthquake on the Twin Lakes maar fault. I suggest that tectonics and not volcanism is responsible for the most recent deformation in the region based on fault geometries and earthquake timings, although more research is needed to tease out finer temporal and genetic relationships between tectonics and volcanism regionally. Second, I investigated the rupture pattern and earthquake history of the Calico fault system in the Eastern California Shear Zone. We mapped ~18 km of continuous rupture, with a mean offset of 2.3 m based on 39 field measurements. We also found evidence for two earthquakes, 0.5 - 1.7 ka and 5.5 - 6.6 ka through paleoseismic trenching. We develop a number of different multifault rupture scenarios using our rupture mapping and rupture scaling relationships to conduct Coulomb stress change modeling for the most recent earthquake on the Calico fault system. We find that the most recent event places regions adjacent to the fault in a stress shadow and may have both delayed the historic Landers and Hector Mine ruptures and prevented triggering of the Calico fault system during those events. Last, I studied the spatial distribution of the southern transition zone of the creeping section of the San Andreas fault at Parkfield, CA to determine if it shifted in response to the M6 2004 Parkfield earthquake. I used an Iterative Closest Point algorithm to find the displacement between two lidar datasets acquired 13 years apart. I compared creep rates measured before the 2004 earthquake to creep rates calculated from my lidar displacement results and found that there is not a discernible change in the overall pattern or distribution of creep as a response to the 2004 earthquake. Peaks within the lidar displacement results indicate complexity in the geometry of fault locking. / Doctor of Philosophy / Fault behavior varies widely across different regions, depending on the type of fault and local geology. In this dissertation I examine three regions with different mechanisms controlling deformation within them. First, I study the relationship between volcanic and tectonic induced faulting in the La Pine graben in the Oregon Cascades. While volcanoes and tectonics can both produce faults within a region, the surface expression of those faults changes depending on the underlying driver. I map > 20 new faults in the La Pine graben. I also conduct paleoseismic trenching on one of the newly identified faults, the Twin Lakes maar fault, and find that its most recent rupture occurred < 7.6 ka. I conclude that tectonism is the dominant driver of faulting within the La Pine graben based on the fault geometries and timing between identified regional earthquakes and volcanism. Second, I explore recent rupture on the Calico fault system in the Eastern California Shear Zone, which is a wide region across eastern California where deformation is distributed among many faults. Faulting in this region is complex, with some earthquakes occurring on multiple connected faults. I conducted a paleoseismic survey to determine the timing of the most recent earthquake(s) on the Calico fault system. This trenching effort found evidence for 1-2 earthquakes, the most recent occurring 0.5 – 1.7 ka. I use the rupture mapping and earthquake timing to develop a number of various rupture scenarios. I use these scenarios as inputs for computer modeling to explore the regional stress changes from these events and find that they reduce the overall stress in the area, elongating the amount of time between regional earthquakes. Last, I examine how creeping fault behavior on the San Andreas fault near Parkfield, CA changes as a response to an earthquake. Creeping behavior is where the two sides of a fault are continuously moving past one another. I examine the spatial distribution of where the San Andreas fault transitions from creeping to locked behavior by differencing two high-resolution lidar topographic datasets taken after the M6 2004 Parkfield earthquake. I compare my displacement results to pre-2004 datasets and conclude that the transition zone did not appreciably change as a result of the earthquake.