Application of continuum models to deformation of the Aleutian Island Arc

Abstract

Continuum models were constructed to describe large-scale deformation of the Aleutian Island Arc over the past 5 m.y. These models consider the island arc as a continuum in the horizontal plane with the velocity boundary condition at the Pacific edge stated as a fraction of Pacific plate convergence transferred to the arc. The preferred model is one where the amount of motion transferred from the Pacific plate is greater in an arc-parallel direction than in an arc-normal direction, producing stresses consistent with strike-slip faulting at the far western end of the arc and tensional stresses consistent with transverse normal faulting elsewhere in the arc massif. -from Authors