Crustal Deformation Along The San Andreas Fault And Within The Tibetan Plateau Measured Using Gps

Abstract

Using the Global Positioning System (GPS), we study crustal deformation along the San Andreas Fault (SAF) in the San Francisco Bay area and within the Tibetan Plateau, and provide new constraints for the kinematics of these actively deforming plate boundaries. GPS measurements in 1996 and 1997 and Electronic Distance Measuring (EDM) data from the 1970s and 1980s at sites along the SAF in northern California were used to determine the near-fault strain rate and to investigate the slip rate, locking depth, and rheology. We found a pronounced high near-fault shear strain rate that can be explained by a 2-D inhomogeneous model in which a low-rigidity compliant zone concentrates strain near the fault. We suggest that the materials on either side of the fault and the cumulative fault offset play a role in the development of the compliant zone. If such a compliant zone is present but unmodeled, the geodetic estimates of slip rate and locking depth (seismogenic depth) would be biased. This would lead to a miscalculated seismic hazard. Thirteen GPS sites in southern Tibet, surveyed in 1995, 1998 and 2000, were merged with other data from China and Nepal into a single, self-consistent velocity field. The Himalaya and southern Tibet was modeled using a kinematically-consistent block model and elastic dislocation theory. We show a significantly lower convergence rate between India and Eurasia in central Himalaya than that previously estimated. We observe that southern Tibet undergoes non-uniform (spatial) east-west extension with one-half of the extension across the Yadong-Gulu rift. We infer that spatially non-uniform extension in southern Tibet results in variation of the arc-normal convergence rates along the Himalaya, and that the Yarlung-Zangbo suture or adjacent structure may be active as a right-lateral strike slip fault. From 44 GPS sites in the Tibetan Plateau, we show that deformation of Tibet is distributed and strain accumulation is spatially uniform across the entire plateau. We propose a kinematic model for the Tibetan Plateau to be a combination of rigid block motion, pure shear and uniaxial contraction in the direction of about N32�E, comparable to the convergence direction between India and Eurasia.