Compressive Tectonics around Tibetan Plateau Edges

Various earthquake fault types, mechanism solutions, stress field, and other geophysical data were analyzed for study on the crust movement in the Tibetan plateau and its tectonic implications. The results show that numbers of thrust fault and strike-slip fault type earthquakes with strong compressive stress near NNE-SSW direction occurred in the edges around the plateau except the eastern boundary. Some normal faulting type earthquakes concentrate in the Central Tibetan plateau. The strikes of fault planes of thrust and strike-slip faulting earthquakes are almost in the E-W direction based on the analyses of the Wulff stereonet diagrams of fault plane solutions. This implies that the dislocation slip vectors of the thrust and strike-slip faulting type events have quite great components in the N-S direction. The compression motion mainly probably plays the tectonic active regime around the plateau edges. The compressive stress in N-S or NE-SW directions predominates earthquake occurrence in the thrust and strike-slip faulting event region around the plateau. The compressive motion around the Tibetan plateau edge is attributable to the northward motion of the Indian subcontinent plate. The northward motion of the Tibetan plateau shortened in the N-S direction encounters probably strong obstructions at the western and northern margins.     

Earthquake mechanisms and tectonics in the Assam-Burma region

Eleven new focal mechanisms from earthquakes in the Assam-Burma region have been determined using P-wave first-motion directions reported in the Bulletins of the International Seismological Centre (Edinburgh). Out of them, eight mechanisms indicate thrust faulting, two normal faultings and one strike-slip faulting. In the thrust type of mechanism solutions, sense of motion on the shallow dipping of the two nodal planes is consistent with underthrusting beneath the arc-like mountain ranges. Seismic slip vectors strike in almost northerly direction along the eastern Himalayas and in almost easterly direction along the Burmese arc. A predominance of thrust faulting is consistent with geological evidences of thrusting and uplift in the Himalayas and the Assam-Burma region.     

Seismotectonics of the Hindukush and Baluchistan arc

A seismicity map of that part of the Pakistan-Afghanistan region lying between the latitudes 28° to 38°N and longitudes 66° to 75°E is given using all available data for the period 1890–1970. The earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and above were considered in the preparation of this map. On the basis of this map, it is observed that the seismicity pattern over the well-known Hindukush region is quite complex. Two prominent, mutually orthogonal, seismicity lineaments, namely the northvestern and the north-eastern trends, characterize the Hindukush area. The northwestern trend appears to extend from the Main Boundary Fault of the Kashmir Himalaya on the southeast to the plains of the Amu Darya in Uzbekistan on the northwest beyond the Hindukush. The Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges of Pakistan are well-defined zones of intermontane seismicity exhibiting north-south alignment.Thirty-two new focal-mechanism solutions for the above-mentioned region have been determined. These, together with the results obtained by earlier workers, suggest the pre-dominance of strike-slip faulting in the area. The Hazara Mountains, the Sulaiman wrench zone and the Kirthar wrench zone, as well as the supposed extension of the Murray ridge up to the Karachi coast, appear to be mostly undergoing strike-slip movements.In the Hindukush region, thrust and strike-slip faulting are found to be equally prevalent. Almost all the thrust-type mechanisms belonging to the Hindukush area have both the nodal planes in the NW-SE direction for shallow as well as intermediate depth earthquakes. The dip of P-axes for the events indicating thrust type mechanisms rarely exceeds 35°. The direction of the seismic slip vector obtained through thrust type solutions is always directed towards the northeast. The epicentral pattern together with these results suggest a deep-seated fault zone paralleling the northwesterly seismic zone underneath the Hindukush. This NW-lineament has a preference for thrust faulting, and it appears to extend from the vicinity of the Main Boundary Fault of the Kashmir Himalaya on the southeast of Uzbekistan on the northwest through Hindukush. Almost orthogonal to this NW-seismic zone, there is a NE-seismic lineament in which there is a preference for strike-slip faulting.The above results are discussed from the point of view of convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the light of plate tectonics theory.     

全球大地震时空分布与动力学机制的初步研究

文中根据最新的全球大震资料划分了 10 0a来全球特大地震的时空演化过程 ,表现为环太平洋带与近纬向活动带两种强震分布图像 ,以 2 0a左右的时间段交替出现。逆冲和引张型地震释放了全球强震能量的主要部分。逆冲型地震主要发生在环太平洋地震带上 ,在喜马拉雅碰撞边界和巽他弧也有发生。引张型地震主要出现在洋脊和裂谷地区。而走滑型地震主要分布在东亚大陆内部、北美板块西边界和加勒比板块的周边、西南太平洋带、以及地中海 -喜马拉雅带部分区域 ,呈近纬向分布。地幔对流的垂直运动与水平运动分量的比率 ,决定了逆冲、引张与走滑型强震的能量释放份额。地幔运动在地表体现在逆冲、引张与走滑型强震空间分布的区域差异性。这种差异在时间上的演化形成了全球强震活动环太平带与近纬向分布图像的交替出现。     

Moment Tensor Solutions of some Selected Local Events: Implications towards the Present-day Tectonics of the Kachchh Rift zone

The Kachchh rift zone of the northwestern India lies near to the India-Arabia and the India-Eurasia plate boundaries, which has experienced many devastating earthquakes in the past, namely the 1819 Allah Bund earthquake, the 1956 Anjar earthquake and the 2001 Bhuj earthquake. These earthquakes claimed the lives of about 17,000 people. To understand the current seismo-tectonic scenario, moment tensor inversion on the broadband data of fourteen Kachchh events of M_w 3.5–4.6 (during 2009–2015) from 5–12 three-component seismograph stations of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, India was applied. Here deviatoric moment tensor inversion of multiple point sources (10–20s) for regional (or local) earthquakes, developed by Zahradnik et al. (2005) was used. The study reveals that modeled focal mechanisms range between reverse and normal oblique strikeslip while no pure normal dip-slip mechanism is found. However, only four out of fourteen events show oblique normal faulting with a minor strike-slip component. Thus, the modeling proposed in this study suggests that the oblique-reverse strike-slip, reverse and strike-slip type focal mechanisms are found to be dominant in the Kachchh rift zone. This observation indicates that the region is presently under compression.     

青藏高原昆仑—汶川地震系列与巴颜喀喇断块的最新活动

青藏高原是中国最主要的地震活动区之一。最近十多年来,在青藏高原中部连续发生了1997年西藏玛尼Ms7.5级地震、2001年青海昆仑山Ms8.1级地震、2008年3月新疆于田Ms7.3级地震和5月四川汶川Ms8.0级地震及2010年青海玉树Ms7.1级地震,它们相继发生于青藏断块区巴颜喀喇断块四周边界活动断裂带上,是该断块最新活动的结果。发生于断块南北边界断裂上的3次地震都是走滑断裂错动的结果,发生在断块东南端的汶川地震则是挤压逆冲断裂的产物,而西北端的于田地震则呈现出张性特征,它们共同反映青藏断块区巴颜喀喇条状断块向东南方向滑动的最新活动。自1900年以来,青藏断块区和巴颜喀喇断块的强震活动表现出多期活动和区域性转移的特征,20世纪早期Ms7.0级以上强地震活动的主体地区在青藏断块区北部边界构造带,中期转移到高原南部喜马拉雅板块边界构造带和断块区南部断块,最近十多年来则在巴颜喀喇断块及周缘边界断裂上活动。青藏高原这种块体活动和地震活动与澳大利亚-印度板块对亚洲大陆的推挤作用相关,因而,青藏高原和巴颜喀喇断块的强震活动与澳-印板块边界苏门答腊强震活动相对应。目前苏门答腊地区强震活动仍在继续,因此,近期对巴颜喀喇断块及青藏高原南部地区的强震活动和强震危险性仍需加以注意。     

青藏高原东南部第四纪右旋剪切运动

通过对藏东南嘉黎断裂和滇西北断裂实地考察研究，表明青藏高原南部不存在统一的边界走滑断裂。嘉黎断裂的西段位于青藏高原南部，是一个南北挤压作用下的东西向伸展构造区，发育近南北向的地堑系，嘉黎断裂西段是这些地堑之间的转换断层，具有较高的右旋走滑速率。滇西北断裂与红河断裂构成川滇菱形块体的西南边界，该块体具有向东南逃逸和顺时针旋转运动。     

Kalpin Transpression Tectonics,Northwestern Tarim Basin,Western China

The paper examines the relative importance of strike-slip faulting and lateral crustal deformations in the geologic structure of a portion of the western People's Republic of China. Deformed thrust sheets in the Kalpin area of the western PRC suggest large-scale sinistral strike-slip movement on the Aheqi fault zone along the northwestern margin of the Tarim basin. The total amount of the Cenozoic sinistral strike-slip displacement is estimated to be 311 km; this is the same magnitude of slip estimated along the Altyn Tagh fault, marking the southeastern boundary of the Tarim basin. Together, the Aheqi and Altyn Tagh faults outline the Aheqi- western Kunlun-southwestern basin-Altyn transpression tectonic system.     

Seismic Activity in the Himalayan Orogenic Belt and Its Related Geohazards

Himalayan orogenic belt is the highest and largest continental collision and subduction zone on the Earth. The Himalayan orogenic belt has produced frequent large earthquakes and caused several geohazards due to landslides and housing collapse, having an impact on the safety of life and property along a length of over 2500 km. Here we took three earthquake clusters as examples, which occurred at Nepal Himalaya, eastern Himalayan syntaxis and western Himalayan syntaxis, respectively. Here we calculated the earthquake locations and fault plane solutions based on the waveform data recorded by seismic stations deployed in source areas by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We found that at the Nepal Himalayan, the Main Himalayan Thrust is the major tectonic structure for large earthquakes to occur. At the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, most earthquakes are of the reverse or strike-slip faulting. The major tectonic feature is the combination of the NE-dipping thrust with the southeastern escape of the Tibetan plateau. At the western Himalayan syntaxis, intermediate-depth earthquakes are active. These observations reveal the geometry of the deep subduction of the continental plate with steep dipping angle.     

Continental Dynamics in High Tibetan Plateau: Normal Faulting Type Earthquake Activities and Mechanisms

Various earthquake fault types were analyzed for this study on the crust movement in the high region of the Tibetan plateau by analyzing mechanism solutions and stress fields. The results show that a lot of normal faulting type earthquakes are concentrated in the central High Tibetan plateau. Many of them are nearly perfect normal fault events. The strikes of the fault planes of normal faulting earthquakes are almost in an N-S direction based on the analyses of the Wulff stereonet diagrams of fault plane solutions. It implies that the dislocation slip vectors of the normal faulting type events have quite great components in the E-W direction. The extensions probably are an eastward extensional motion, being mainly a tectonic active regime in the plateau altitudes. The tensional stress in the E-W or NWW-SEE direction predominates earthquake occurrences in the normal event region of the central plateau. The eastward extensional motion in the high Tibetan plateau is attributable to the gravitational collapse of the high plateau and the eastward extrusion of hotter mantle materials beneath the east boundary of the plateau. Extensional motions from the relaxation of the topography and/or gravitational collapse in the high plateau hardly occurred along the N-S direction. The obstruction for the plateau to move eastward is rather weak.     

喜马拉雅造山带地震活动及其相关地质灾害

喜马拉雅造山带是地球上海拔最高、规模最大的陆陆板块俯冲碰撞带在这条长达2 500 km的板块边界上,近年来多次发生破坏性地震,造成大规模的滑坡、房屋倒塌等次生灾害,给人民生命和财产安全造成严重的威胁。分别选取尼泊尔喜马拉雅、喜马拉雅东构造结和喜马拉雅西构造结地区近期发生的3个地震震群作为研究实例,基于中国科学院青藏高原研究所在研究区架设的区域流动地震台站记录的波形资料,对地震的震源位置和震源机制解进行计算。结果表明,在尼泊尔喜马拉雅地区,主喜马拉雅逆冲断裂是大地震的主要发震构造;东构造结地区的地震以逆冲和走滑型为主,表明印度板块向北东方向的逆冲推覆和青藏高原向东南逃逸的侧向挤出是该地区的主要构造背景;西构造结地区中深源地震多发,揭示了高角度大陆深俯冲的几何形态。     

Transtensional deformation in the Lake Tahoe region, California and Nevada, USA

Dextral transtensional deformation is occurring along the Sierra Nevada–Great Basin boundary zone (SNGBBZ) at the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada microplate. In the Lake Tahoe region of the SNGBBZ, transtension is partitioned spatially and temporally into domains of north–south striking normal faults and transitional domains with conjugate strike-slip faults. The normal fault domains, which have had large Holocene earthquakes but account only for background seismicity in the historic period, primarily accommodate east–west extension, while the transitional domains, which have had moderate Holocene and historic earthquakes and are currently seismically active, primarily record north–south shortening. Through partitioned slip, the upper crust in this region undergoes overall constrictional strain.Major fault zones within the Lake Tahoe basin include two normal fault zones: the northwest-trending Tahoe–Sierra frontal fault zone (TSFFZ) and the north-trending West Tahoe–Dollar Point fault zone. Most faults in these zones show eastside down displacements. Both of these fault zones show evidence of Holocene earthquakes but are relatively quiet seismically through the historic record. The northeast-trending North Tahoe–Incline Village fault zone is a major normal to sinistral-oblique fault zone. This fault zone shows evidence for large Holocene earthquakes and based on the historic record is seismically active at the microearthquake level. The zone forms the boundary between the Lake Tahoe normal fault domain to the south and the Truckee transition zone to the north.Several lines of evidence, including both geology and historic seismicity, indicate that the seismically active Truckee and Gardnerville transition zones, north and southeast of Lake Tahoe basin, respectively, are undergoing north–south shortening. In addition, the central Carson Range, a major north-trending range block between two large normal fault zones, shows internal fault patterns that suggest the range is undergoing north–south shortening in addition to east–west extension.A model capable of explaining the spatial and temporal partitioning of slip suggests that seismic behavior in the region alternates between two modes, one mode characterized by an east–west minimum principal stress and a north–south maximum principal stress as at present. In this mode, seismicity and small-scale faulting reflecting north–south shortening concentrate in mechanically weak transition zones with primarily strike-slip faulting in relatively small-magnitude events, and domains with major normal faults are relatively quiet. A second mode occurs after sufficient north–south shortening reduces the north–south S_hmax in magnitude until it is less than S_v, at which point S_v becomes the maximum principal stress. This second mode is then characterized by large earthquakes on major normal faults in the large normal fault domains, which dominate the overall moment release in the region, producing significant east–west extension.     

Implications of north pacific plate tectonics in central Alaska: Focal mechanisms of earthquakes

The focal mechanisms for 86 selected earthquakes (3.0 m_b 5.5) located in central Alaska have been investigated from P-wave first motions; the data were gathered by local seismic networks. The results show a depth-dependent characteristic to the fault-plane solutions. For earthquakes having focal depths shallower than 60–70 km, the focal mechanisms indicate either strike-slip or normal faults, while for earthquakes with foci at intermediate depths the focal mechanisms correspond to thrust faults. The nature of the seismicity indicates the hinge line of the Pacific lithospheric plate under the study area to be striking N17°E from Cook Inlet towards interior Alaska. The comparison of the focal mechanisms with the seismicity shows that the strike-slip and normal faults are the predominant processes of stress release along the shallow section of the plate. The earthquakes with intermediate foci systematically occur along the inclined section of the plate. If the gently dipping nodal planes for these earthquakes are chosen as the fault planes, the focal mechanisms correspond to underthrust motions at the foci. In these, the slip vectors are oriented either to the west or north with the resultant being in the N30°W direction. The tension axes for the underthrust solutions are also found to be parallel to the local dip of the plate, indicating that the subducted plate in interior Alaska is undergoing gravitational sinking.     

Fault-plane solutions and seismicity of the Italian peninsula

A new fault-plane solution map of the Italian peninsula is presented in this paper. The earthquakes analyzed are included in the period 1905–1980, with magnitudes ranging 4–7, 75 earthquakes are located in the crust, while 31 are related to the deep and intermediate zone of the Calabrian arc. The large seismic events of the Italian peninsula are generally associated with normal faulting, while strike-slip motion is mostly related to small earthquakes, located along lateral segments of the mountain chain.The deep and intermediate earthquakes of the Tyrrhenian Sea indicate predominant down-dip compression, and strike-slip motion at the boundaries of this Benioff zone. This last is interpreted as a remnant of a subduction zone, active since Oligocene, extending to 500 km depth, with a very small lateral size (about 300 km). The present tectonics of this Benioff zone is strongly conditioned by the lateral bending, more so than the gravitational sinking process.The coexistence of thrust and normal faulting motion associated to the earthquakes, within a few tens of kilometers of each other, seems to be explained by the strong lateral inhomogeneities of the crustal rocks present in this region, more so than to the depth of the seismogenetic zone and the nature of the faulting process.     

Tsunamis in and near Greece and their relation to the earthquake focal mechanisms

The major earthquake-induced tsunamis reliable known to have occurred in and near Greece since antiquity are considered in the light of the recently obtained reliable data on the mechanisms and focal depths of the earthquakes occurring here. (The earthquake data concern the major shocks of the period 1962–1986.) First, concise information is given on the most devastating tsunamis. Then the relation between the (estimated) maximum tsunami intensity and the earthquake parameters (mechanism and focal depth) is examined. It is revealed that the most devastating tsunamis took place in areas (such as the western part of the Corinthiakos Gulf, the Maliakos Gulf, and the southern Aegean Sea) where earthquakes are due to shallow normal faulting. Other major tsunamis were nucleated along the convex side of the Hellenic arc, characterized by shallow thrust earthquakes. It is probably somewhere there (most likely south of Crete) that the region's largest known tsunami occurred in AD 365, claiming many lives and causing extensive devastation in the entire eastern Mediterranean. Such big tsunamis seem to have a return period of well over 1000 years and can be generated by large shallow earthquakes associated with thrust faulting beneath the Hellenic trench, where the African plate subduces under the Euroasian plate. Lesser tsunamis are known in the northernmost part of the Aegean Sea and in the Sea of Marmara, where strike-slip faulting is observed. Finally, an attempt is made to combine the tsunami and earthquake data into a map of the region's main tsunamigenic zones (areas of the sea bed believed responsible for past tsunamis and expected to nucleate tsunamis in the future).     

Active Faulting Pattern,Present-day Tectonic Stress Field and Block Kinematics in the East Tibetan Plateau

This paper examines major active faults and the present-day tectonic stress field in the East Tibetan Plateau by integrating available data from published literature and proposes a block kinematics model of the region.It shows that the East Tibetan Plateau is dominated by strike-slip and reverse faulting stress regimes and that the maximum horizontal stress is roughly consistent with the contemporary velocity field,except for the west Qinling range where it parallels the striking of the major strike-slip...     

Active Faulting Pattern,Present‐day Tectonic Stress Field and Block Kinematics in the East Tibetan Plateau

Abstract: This paper examines major active faults and the present-day tectonic stress field in the East Tibetan Plateau by integrating available data from published literature and proposes a block kinematics model of the region. It shows that the East Tibetan Plateau is dominated by strike-slip and reverse faulting stress regimes and that the maximum horizontal stress is roughly consistent with the contemporary velocity field, except for the west Qinling range where it parallels the striking of the major strike-slip faults. Active tectonics in the East Tibetan Plateau is characterized by three faulting systems. The left-slip Kunlun-Qinling faulting system combines the east Kunlun fault zone, sinistral oblique reverse faults along the Minshan range and two major NEE-striking faults cutting the west Qinling range, which accommodates eastward motion, at 10–14 mm/a, of the Chuan-Qing block. The left-slip Xianshuihe faulting system accommodated clockwise rotation of the Chuan-Dian block. The Longmenshan thrust faulting system forms the eastern margin of the East Tibetan Plateau and has been propagated to the SW of the Sichuan basin. Crustal shortening across the Longmenshan range seems low (2–4 mm/a) and absorbed only a small part of the eastward motion of the Chuan-Qing block. Most of this eastward motion has been transmitted to South China, which is moving SEE-ward at 7–9 mm/a. It is suggested from geophysical data interpretation that the crust and lithosphere of the East Tibetan Plateau is considerably thickened and rheologically layered. The upper crust seems to be decoupled from the lower crust through a décollement zone at a depth of 15–20 km, which involved the Longmenshan fault belt and propagated eastward to the SW of the Sichuan basin. The Wenchuan earthquake was just formed at the bifurcated point of this décollement system. A rheological boundary should exist beneath the Longmenshan fault belt where the lower crust of the East Tibetan Plateau and the lithospheric mantle of the Yangze block are juxtaposed.     

Structural characterization of deep-water deposits in a foreland basin, Silla Syncline (Chilean Patagonia), with applications to depositional processes

Based on our detailed structural characterization, we examine possible relationships between thrust faults and strike-slip faults and thrust-cored folds and depositional units in the Silla Syncline, a 4 km wide fold composed of fine-grained mudstone, coarse sandstone and conglomerate deposits of the Cerro Toro Formation in the Magallanes foreland basin, Chilean Patagonia. The syncline is bounded on its western flank by an asymmetric anticline and on its eastern flank by a broad zone of thrust faults and associated folds, which are oriented sub-parallel to the syncline axis. Deposition of the coarse-grained units of the Silla Syncline appears to have taken place in this structurally defined trough controlled primarily by thrust fault related growth structures flanking the syncline.The syncline and surrounding area have also been deformed by two sets of strike-slip faults, one right-lateral and one left-lateral. The strike-slip and thrust faulting operated contemporaneously for much of their active periods, although it appears that thrust faulting, confined within the fine-grained units, initiated slightly earlier than strike-slip faulting. In addition, younger igneous intrusions at high angle to bedding generally localize along the strike-slip faults. The cross-cutting relationships among the intrusions, strike-slip faults, and flexural slip faults show that all these structures were active during the same period, which extends beyond mid-Miocene.These conclusions support the premise that structures in deep-water sediments are important for understanding not only the deformation of a foreland basin, but also its depositional architecture.     

The October 6, 2008 Mw 6.3 magnitude Damxung earthquake,Yadong-Gulu rift,Tibet, and implications for present-day crustal deformation within Tibet

A Mw 6.3 magnitude earthquake occurred on October 6, 2008 in southern Damxung County within the N–S trending Yangyi graben, which forms the northern section of the Yadong-Gulu rift of south-central Tibet. The earthquake had a maximum intensity of IX at the village of Yangyi (also Yangying) (29°43.3′N; 90°23.6′E) and resulted in 10 deaths and 60 injured in this sparsely populated region. Field observations and focal mechanism solutions show normal fault movement occurred along the NNE-trending western boundary fault of the Yangyi graben, in agreement with the felt epicenter, pattern of the isoseismal contours, and distribution of aftershocks. The earthquake and its tectonic relations were studied in detail to provide data on the seismic hazard to the nearby city of Lhasa.The Damxung earthquake is one of the prominent events along normal and strike-slip faults that occurred widely about Tibet before and after the 2008 Mw 7.9 magnitude Wenchuan earthquake. Analysis of these recent M ? 5.0 earthquake sequences demonstrate a kinematic relation between the normal, strike-slip, and reverse causative fault movements across the region. These earthquakes are found to be linked and the result of eastward extrusion of two large structural blocks of central Tibet. The reverse and oblique-slip surface faulting along the Longmenshan thrust belt at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau causing the Wenchuan earthquake, was the result of eastward directed compression and crustal shortening due to the extrusion. Prior to it, east–west extensional deformation indicated by normal and strike-slip faulting events across central Tibet, had led to a build up of the compression to the east. The subsequent renewal of extensional deformational events in central Tibet appears related to some drag effect due to the crustal shortening of the Wenchuan event. Unraveling the kinematical relation between these earthquake swarms is a very helpful approach for understanding the migration of strong earthquakes across Tibet.     

Large earthquakes in the New Guinea-Solomon Islands area, 1873–1972

A catalogue of 1873–1972 earthquakes with M > 6.9 for the New Guinea—Solomon Islands region (130–165° E) is compiled. There are 152 events listed. Duda's (1965) results for 1900–1968 are improved for the Papua New Guinea area (141–156° E) because of the availability of historical data for that area.Although there is evidence of rapid Holocene uplift in the main seismic zones, there is little historical evidence for visible uplift or subsidence resulting directly from modern major earthquakes. Coastal subsidences commonly reported as a result of earthquakes are of smaller extent and appear to be due to settlement. However, the occurrence of tsunamigenic earthquakes does suggest that surface deformations do take place off-shore.Using Davies and Brune's (1971) method, regional fault slip rates over 5° -segments of the shallow seismic zone are determined from the seismicity catalogue. The slip rate for the island of New Guinea (Gutenberg and Richter's Region 16) is found to be at least 4.4 cm/y which is almost double the very anomalously low rate of 2.3 cm/y found by Davies and Brune (1971). If allowance is made for shear movement without seismicity and for the approximately ratio of dip-slip versus strike-slip faulting indicated by fault plane solutions, the agreement with Le Pichon's (1970) approach value of 10.7 cm/y for the Pacific—India (Australia) plates is reasonable. The fault slip rate in the area between east New Britain and Bougainville at the Pacific—Bismarck—Solomon triple junction is extremely high (20.6 cm/y at least). The smallest slip rate (1.5 cm/y) is found for westernmost New Guinea (130–135° E).Temporal cumulative summation of moments curves show a periodicity of approximately 25 years in the seismic activity at the triple junction (150–155° E). Elsewhere the rate of seismic activity is aperiodic.