A middle Miocene post‐rift stress regime revealed by dikes and mesoscale faults in the Kakunodate area,NE Japan

Significant advances were made in the last century in the investigations of the Neogene stress history of the NE Japan arc. However, previous studies have failed to fully resolve middle Miocene post‐rift stress conditions owing to their assumption of Andersonian faulting and an inability to determine maximum and intermediate stress axes from dike orientations. We applied the latest methods of paleostress analysis in this study to igneous dikes and mesoscale faults in the Kakunodate area of the NE Japan arc to elucidate post‐rift stress conditions. Stratigraphic constraints and U–Pb dating indicate that the doleritic and dacitic dikes were formed at 16–12 Ma and 15–12 Ma, respectively. Dolerite and dacite dikes yielded NW–SE extensional stresses with intermediate and low stress ratios, respectively. Mesoscale faults in the middle Miocene formations of the studied area indicated similar stresses. We suggest the sluggish deformations resulting in the dike intrusion and faulting in the normal‐faulting stress regime after the termination of intra‐arc rifting at ca. 15 Ma.