The Explorer region offshore western Canada is a tectonically complex area
surrounded by the Pacific, North America, and Juan de Fuca plates. Existing tectonic
models for the region differ fundamentally. Proposed plate configurations range from
multiple independent plate fragments to an Explorer plate now fused to North America
along the...
In this paper we outline a procedure we use for routine moment-tensor analysis of regional data from broadband seismic stations in northwestern North America and apply it to the moment magnitude 5.5, March, 1993, Scotts Mills, Oregon, earthquake. The results compare favorably with those obtained from teleseismic data. We found...
Here we use SKS shear wave splitting observations from ocean-bottom seismometer data to infer patterns of mantle deformation beneath the Juan de Fuca plate and its adjoining boundaries. Our results indicate that the asthenosphere beneath the Juan de Fuca plate responds largely to absolute plate motion with an anisotropic layer...
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toward trench parallel between 44°N and 46°N. 129
The region of trench parallel orientations coincides
New analyses of teleseismic body waves from moderate earthquakes in western Argentina demonstrate that active shortening of the Andean foreland occurs on reverse faults extending to 40–50 km depth. Existing crustal‐scale models of foreland deformation invoke thin‐skinned fault geometries, which root into an east‐dipping mid‐crustal décollement. Whereas thin‐skinned thrust sheets...
The Blanco Transform Fault Zone (BTFZ) forms the ~350 km long Pacific–Juan de
Fuca plate boundary between the Gorda and Juan de Fuca ridges. Nearby broadband seismic networks provide a unique framework for a detailed, long-term seismotectonic study of an entire oceanic transform fault (OTF) system. We use regional waveforms...