Hanging wall deformation of a seismogenic megasplay fault in an accretionary prism: The Nobeoka Thrust in southwestern Japan

The structure and occurrence of deformation within the hanging wall of the Nobeoka Thrust in Kyushu, Japan, was investigated to understand the dynamic aspects of splay faulting in relation to seismic events. From field observations, hanging wall is suggested to have undergone four phases of deformation. The first phase involved horizontal shortening, as documented by folding and thrusting, followed by a phase of vertical loading shown by the development of horizontal slaty cleavages, pressure solution, and cleavage-parallel mineral vein precipitation. A third phase involved shearing, and deformation along cleavage restricted to near the Nobeoka Thrust, while the fourth phase produced widespread, brittle fracturing associated with the development of pseudotachylyte-bearing faults and tension crack filling veins high angle to cleavage. These four phases can be explained as follows.During the inter-seismic period, an extensionally stable taper was maintained in the inner wedge of the accretionary prism by dominant vertical loading (σ1), in combination with a lesser amount of horizontal compression (σ2) related to the locking of the mega-thrust. Elastic strain energy in the hanging wall of the inner wedge was co-seismically released by slip on the mega-thrust and horizontal shortening in the outer wedge associated with dynamic ductile weakening of the fault plane. This sudden release of elastic strain caused brittle fracturing with σ1 at a high angle to the shear surface of the Nobeoka Thrust, most of the displacement resulting from deformation of the footwall.