Inferring stress from faulting: From early concepts to inverse methods

Explaining the presence of normal faults in overall compressive settings is a challenging problem in understanding the tectonics of active mountain belts. The Himalayan-Tibetan orogenic system is an excellent setting to approach this problem because it preserves one of the most dramatic records of long-term, contemporaneous shortening and extension. Over the past decades, several studies have described extensional features, not only in the Tibetan Plateau, but also in the Himalaya. For a long time, the favored model explained the function of the Southern Tibetan detachment system, a major fault zone in the Himalaya, as a decoupling horizon between the regime of crustal shortening forming the Himalayan wedge to the south and the extensional regime of the Tibetan Plateau to the north. However, in recent years, increasing evidence has shown that N-S–trending normal faults in the Central Himalaya crosscut not only the Southern Tibetan detachment system, but also the Main Central thrust.

Here, we present new structural data and geologic evidence collected within the NW Indian Himalaya and combine them with previously published seismicity data sets in order to document pervasive E-W extension accommodated along N-S–trending faults extending as far south as the footwall of the Main Central thrust. We conducted a kinematic analysis of fault striations on brittle faults, documented and mapped fault scarps in Quaternary sedimentary deposits using satellite imagery, and made field observations in the Greater Sutlej region (Spiti, Lahul, Kinnaur) and the Garhwal Himalaya. Studies of extensional features within the regionally NW-SE–trending NW Indian Himalaya provide the advantage that arc-parallel and E-W extension can be separated, in contrast to the Central Himalaya. Therefore, our observations of E-W extension in the Indian NW Himalaya are well suited to test the applicability of current tectonic models for the whole Himalaya. We favor the interpretation of E-W extension in the NW Indian Himalaya as a propagation of extension driven by collapse of the Tibetan Plateau.

East-west extension in the NW Indian Himalaya

We use earthquake focal mechanisms to study present-day deformation and stress in the western part of the Eastern European Alps. We define the following regions, based on seismicity and kinematically compatible focal mechanism types: (1) the northern and western parts of the Dolomites indenter, the western and central Tauern Window, and the northern Alpine margin and foreland lack significant seismicity. (2) The indenter boundaries are characterized by strike-slip faulting. Based on earthquake and geodetic data, the western and northern indenter boundaries are active sinistral and dextral strike-slip/oblique slip faults. (3) West and north of the indenter corner, we observe normal and strike-slip faulting in an up to 70 km-wide zone. From west to east, the minimum horizontal stress rotates clockwise about 10–20°, from NE to ENE. (4) North of (3), east of the Swiss/Austrian border, we find evidence for N to NNW directed thrust faulting, and local orogen-parallel extension. From our results and geodetic data, we infer that relative to a fixed northern foreland, NNW directed indentation is transferred at depth via the Sub-Tauern thrust system to this 100-km-wide zone of localized thrusting. A lack of evidence for major, active strike-slip faulting north of the Tauern Window is in line with geodetic data, which show no significant velocity difference between the northern part of the Eastern Alps and their foreland.

Active Seismotectonic Deformation in Front of the Dolomites Indenter, Eastern Alps

Postrift stress field inversion in the Potiguar Basin, Brazil – Implications for petroleum systems and evolution of the equatorial margin of South America

Evidence of synextension tilting and doming during final exhumation from analysis of multistage faults (Queyras Schistes lustres, Western Alps)

Easy handling of tectonic data: the programs TectonicVB for Mac and TectonicsFP for Windows

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Easy handling of tectonic data: the programs TectonicVB for Mac and TectonicsFP for Windows