Bookshelf tectonics: Rotated crustal blocks within the Sovanco Fracture Zone
Abstract
The 15 kilometer wide Sovanco Fracture Zone is a dextral-slip transform fault linking the Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridges in the N.E. Pacific. SEABEAM bathymetry shows that the Sovanco comprises several rhomb-shaped elevated blocks of oceanic crust bounded by northeast- and northwest-trending lineaments. We hypothesize that the northeast-trending lineaments are sinistral strike-slip faults that are reactivated ridge-parallel normal faults. Both the sinistral block-bounding faults and the blocks themselves have rotated clockwise about 30 degrees in response to dextral shear within the Sovanco zone.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1029/GL013i010p00995
- Bibcode:
- 1986GeoRL..13..995C
- Keywords:
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- Marine Geology and Geophysics: Midocean ridge processes;
- Marine Geology and Geophysics: Plate tectonics;
- Marine Geology and Geophysics: Seafloor morphology and bottom photography;
- Information Related to Geographic Region: Pacific Ocean