M. Magee | USGS Science

USGS1993

The Cape Mendocino, California, earthquakes of April 1992: Subduction at the triple junction

The 25 April 1992 magnitude 7.1 Cape Mendocino thrust earthquake demonstrated that the North America—Gorda plate boundary is seismogenic and illustrated hazards that could result from much larger earthquakes forecast for the Cascadia region. The shock occurred just north of the Mendocino Triple Junction and caused strong ground motion and moderate damage in the immediate area. Rupture initiated onshore at a depth of 10.5 kilometers and propagated up-dip and seaward. Slip on steep faults in the Gorda plate generated two magnitude 6.6 aftershocks on 26 April. The main shock did not produce surface rupture on land but caused coastal uplift and a tsunami. The emerging picture of seismicity and faulting at the triple junction suggests that the region is likely to continue experiencing significant seismicity.

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USGS1991

Stress magnitudes in the crust: constraints from stress orientation and relative magnitude data

The World Stress Map Project is a global cooperative effort to compile and interpret data on the orientation and relative magnitudes of the contemporary in situ tectonic stress field in the Earth's lithosphere. The intraplate stress field in both the oceans and continents is largely compressional with one or both of the horizontal stresses greater than the vertical stress. The regionally uniform horizontal intraplate stress orientations are generally consistent with either relative or absolute plate motions indicating that plate-boundary forces dominate the stress distribution within the plates. Current models of stresses due to whole mantle flow inferred from seismic topography models predict a general compressional stress state within continents but do not match the broad-scale horizontal stress orientations. The broad regionally uniform intraplate stress orientations are best correlated with compressional plate-boundary forces and the geometry of the plate boundaries. -from Authors

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A:↗