Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

 

Structure and seismic hazards of the offshore Cascadia forearc and evolution of the Neogene forearc basin Public Deposited

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/k930c0878

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  • The Cascadia subduction zone has been characterized as a typical Chilean-type subduction zone based on qualitative comparisons of plate age and convergence rate, with simple forearc structure. However, the discovery of unusual structural styles of deformation, variations in the morphology of the forearc, and its absence of seismic activity suggest differences from the Chilean analog. The manuscripts presented here (McNeill et al., 1997, in press, submitted) illustrate this complexity and provide examples of contrasting deformation throughout the offshore forearc. The Washington and northern Oregon shelf and upper slope are characterized by extension in the form of listric normal faults. These faults have been active since the late Miocene and are driven by detachment and extension of the underlying overpressured mélange and broken formation. This region of the forearc is partly to wholly decoupled from convergence-driven compression which dominates deformation elsewhere in the forearc. One exception to convergence-driven compression is a region of N-S compression of the inner shelf and coastal region which reflects the regional stress field. N-S compressional structures apparently influence the positions of coastal lowlands and uplands and may contribute to the record of coastal marsh burials interepreted as the result of coseismic subsidence during subduction zone earthquakes. Modeling of subduction zone earthquake characteristics based on marsh stratigraphy is likely to be inaccurate in terms of rupture zone position, magnitude, and recurrence interval. The Cascadia shelf and upper slope are underlain by a sequence of deformed basinal strata which reflects the tectonic evolution of the margin. The surface of a regional late Miocene angular unconformity (7.5-6 Ma: a global hiatus) indicates deformation by uplifted submarine banks and subsided synclines (coincident with low recent uplift onshore), which control the current shelf break position. The basin is currently filled behind a N-S-trending outer-arc high, which uplifted in the early-middle Pliocene following truncation and erosion of the seaward edge of the basin. Breaching of the outer-arc high occurred in the early Pleistocene leading to the formation of the Astoria Submarine Fan and increased growth rates of the accretionary wedge.
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