Reactivated strike–slip faults: examples from north Cornwall, UK

Several strike–slip faults at Crackington Haven, UK show evidence of right-lateral movement with tip cracks and dilatational jogs, which have been reactivated by left-lateral strike–slip movement. Evidence for reactivation includes two slickenside striae on a single fault surface, two groups of tip cracks with different orientations and very low displacement gradients or negative (left-lateral) displacements at fault tips.

Evidence for the relative age of the two strike–slip movements is (1) the first formed tip cracks associated with right-lateral slip are deformed, whereas the tip cracks formed during left-lateral slip show no deformation; (2) some of the tip cracks associated with right-lateral movement show left-lateral reactivation; and (3) left-lateral displacement is commonly recorded at the tips of dominantly right-lateral faults.

The orientation of the tip cracks to the main fault is 30–70° clockwise for right-lateral slip, and 20–40° counter-clockwise for left-lateral slip. The structure formed by this process of strike–slip reactivation is termed a “tree structure” because it is similar to a tree with branches. The angular difference between these two groups of tip cracks could be interpreted as due to different stress distribution (e.g., transtensional/transpressional, near-field or far-field stress), different fracture modes or fractures utilizing pre-existing planes of weakness.

Most of the d–x profiles have similar patterns, which show low or negative displacement at the segment fault tips. Although the d–x profiles are complicated by fault segments and reactivation, they provide clear evidence for reactivation. Profiles that experienced two opposite slip movements show various shapes depending on the amount of displacement and the slip sequence. For a larger slip followed by a smaller slip with opposite sense, the profile would be expected to record very low or reverse displacement at fault tips due to late-stage tip propagation. Whereas for a smaller slip followed by larger slip with opposite sense, the d–x profile would be flatter with no reverse displacement at the tips. Reactivation also decreases the ratio of d_max/L since for an original right-lateral fault, left lateral reactivation will reduce the net displacement (d_max) along a fault and increase the fault length (L).

Finally we compare Crackington Haven faults with these in the Atacama system of northern Chile. The Salar Grande Fault (SGF) formed as a left-lateral fault with large displacement in its central region. Later right-lateral reactivation is preserved at the fault tips and at the smaller sub-parallel Cerro Chuculay Fault. These faults resemble those seen at Crackington Haven.     

鲜水河断裂带北西段的枢纽运动与强震的发生

由炉霍，道孕，乾宁三条次级断裂左阶斜列组合而成的鲜水河断裂带的北西段。在断裂左旋走滑运动中，普遍出现断裂的枢纽运动。在产生的枢纽轴部，是强震发生的最佳地质的构造部位。近代发生的１９７３年炉霍７．６级地震，１０２３年炉堆道孕间介促７．３级地震，１８９３年乾宁７．３级地震，都分别发生在断裂的枢纽轴部，审由于枢纽部易于造成闭锁的结果。     

Research on the seismotectonics of the Jan－uary 17，1995 Hanshin M7．2 earthquake

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Aseismio fault slip and block deformation in North China

In North China, the tectonic fault-block system enables us to use the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) method to simulate the long-term cross-fault survey and other geodetic data related to aseismic tectonic deformation. By the simulation we have found that: (1) Slips on faults with different orientation are generally in agreement with the ENE-WSW tectonic stress field, but the slip pattern of faulting can vary from nearly orthogonal, to pure shear along the strike of the faults, this pattern cannot be explained by simple geometric relation between the strike of the fault and the direction of the tectonic shortening. This phenomenon has been observed at many sites of cross-fault geodetic surveys, and might be caused by the interactions between different blocks and faults. (2) According to the DDA model, if the average aseismic slip rate along major active faults is at the order of several tenths of millimeter per year as observed by the cross-fault geodetic surveys, the typical strain rate inside a block is at the order of 10^–8 year^–1 or less, so that the rate of 10^–6 year^–1, as reported by observations in smaller areas, cannot be the representative deformation rate in this region. (3) Between the slips caused by regional compression and block rotation, there is a possibility that the sense of slip caused by rigid body rotation in two adjacent blocks is opposite to the slip caused by the tectonic compression. But the magnitude of slip resulting from the tectonic compression is much larger than that due to the block rotation. Thus, in general, the slip pattern on faults as a whole agrees with the sense of tectonic compression in this region. That is to say, the slip caused by regional compression dominates the entire slip budget. (4) Based on (3), some observed slips in contradiction to ENE tectonic stress field may be caused by more localized sources, and have no tectonic significance.     

云南某工区F1断裂断层物质特征及其意义

断层物质是断层活动的产物,采用多种测试技术从断层物质中必定能提取出与断层活动有关的信息。通过对F_1断裂断层泥中粘土矿物X射线衍射、热释光测年、石英碎砾SEM观测、断层泥显微构造分析等多种方法的综合研究,结果表明,F_1断裂最后一次活动时期在中更新世晚期,活动方式是以粘滑为主,且断层泥形成时温度小于200℃。     

Basic characteristics of active tectonics of China

Active tectonics is inferred to all the structures which have been active since the late Pleisto-cene, 100—120 ka B.P., are still active recently, and will be active in a certain time period in the future, such as active faults, active folds, active basi…     

Residual strength of slip zones of large landslides in the Three Gorges area, China

Slip zones of the large landslides in the Three Gorges area are commonly composed of fine-grained soils with substantial amount of coarse-grained particles, particularly gravel-sized particles. In this study, residual strength of the soils from slip zones of these landslides were examined in relation to their index properties based on a survey of 170 landslides. It was found that laboratory-determined residual friction angle using gravel-free fraction of the disturbed soils from the slip zones was closely related to clay content, liquid limit and plasticity index. On the other hand, in-situ residual friction angle of these soils (i.e. including gravel fraction) showed very weak correlations with clay content and Atterberg limits, but was largely dependent on gravel and fines (clays + silts) contents, increasing with gravels and decreasing with fines, and displayed strong linear correlation with the ratio of gravel to fines contents. These observations indicate that among the index properties, clay content and Atterberg limits can be used to estimate residual strength of the soils finer than 2 mm, but they are not appropriate evaluate the residual strength of the soils containing considerable amount of gravel-sized particles. For the latter, particle size distribution (particularly the ratio of gravel to fines contents) appears to be a useful index. Additionally, it was found that there was no identifiable correlation between relative abundance of individual major clay minerals and residual friction angles of both gravel-free fraction of disturbed and in-situ soils, suggesting that influence of clay minerals on residual strength of these soils can not be simply evaluated based on their abundance.     

A 48-kyr-long slip rate history for the Jordan Valley segment of the Dead Sea Fault

We investigate the late Quaternary active deformation along the Jordan Valley segment of the left-lateral Dead Sea Fault and provide new insights on the behaviour of major continental faults. The 110-km-long fault segment shows systematic offsets of drainage systems surveyed at three sites along its southern section. The isotopic dating of six paleoclimatic events yields a precise chronology for the onset of six generations of gully incisions at 47.5 ka BP, 37.5 ka BP, 13 ka BP, 9 ka BP, 7 ka BP, and 5 ka BP. Additionally, detailed mapping and reconstructions provide cumulative displacements for 20 dated incisions along the fault trace. The individual amounts of cumulative slip consistently fall into six distinct classes. This yields: i) an average constant slip rate of 4.7 to 5.1 mm/yr for the last 47.5 kyr and ii) a variable slip rate ranging from 3.5 mm/yr to 11 mm/yr over 2-kyr- to 24-kyr-long intervals. Taking into account that the last large earthquake occurred in AD 1033, we infer 3.5 to 5 m of present-day slip deficit which corresponds to a Mw  7.4 earthquake along the Jordan Valley fault segment. The timing of cumulative offsets reveals slip rate variations critical to our understanding of the slip deficit and seismic cycle along major continental faults.     

慢滑移及相关脉动和慢地震研究的历史和现状

观测表明,慢滑移事件通常发生在活动断裂带内,为发震层之下的短暂滑移,能够造成地表的瞬态运动。与慢滑移密切相关的慢地震能够发射出频率在一定范围内的脉动信号,但不造成灾害性事件。慢滑移和慢地震很可能是断裂带上形变能释放的基本方式,其观测有可能为人们更深入地了解断裂带的动力学过程提供基础和依据。本文重点介绍近10年来关于慢地震和慢滑移事件的研究历史和现状。目前对慢滑移引发的地表形变和慢地震发射的脉动信号特征有了深入细致的研究,开展了对慢滑移的数值模拟和慢地震定位的研究;但对慢地震和慢滑移发生的位置、两者的关系以及物理机制等方面还存在很多争论和问题。