Complex states of stress during the normal faulting seismic cycle: Role of midcrustal postseismic creep

Abstract

Numerical models are used to analyze coseismic and postseismic change in the state of stress near the lower tip of a normal fault directly below the brittle-ductile transition. The models are compared with information obtained from the geological record of exhumed metamorphic rocks regarding the magnitude and the geometry of coseismic stress increase close to the lower fault termination and the mechanisms involved during postseismic stress relaxation. The numerical results predict a drop in differential and fault-parallel shear stress in the upper crust and a stress increase in the lower crust due to the tapering off in fault slip. The coseismic deformation field in the crust causes significant deflection of the principal stresses from the horizontal and the vertical. During the postseismic period, the recovery of the crustal stress field remains incomplete, even for long recurrence intervals. Instead, the stress field evolves in self-similar cycles, controlled by repeated earthquake activity. The numerical models show that postseismic viscous creep localized beneath the fault contributes to the recovery of all stress tensor components in the upper crust close to the fault. This result implies that a detailed understanding of the processes and conditions active during postseismic stress relaxation in the middle and lower crust is essential in order to estimate reloading rates in the upper crust surrounding the fault. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.