Escape of Sierra Nevada-Great Valley Block Motion Contributes to Upper-Plate Contraction Within the Southern Cascadia Margin Near Humboldt Bay, CA.

Recent GPS-derived site velocities (1993-2002) in northwestern California reveal that an additional mechanism other than subduction is in part accountable for observed upper plate contraction north of the migrating Mendocino triple junction. Sites at and near Cape Mendocino are moving approximately 30 mm/yr and are consistently oriented approximately N 10° W, sub-parallel to the southern Cascadia trench. Sites just north of latitude 40.4° N begin to be oriented east of north, sub-parallel to the Gorda-North America plate convergence direction. The transition from west-of-north to east-of-north site azimuths occurs 20 km north of the Mendocino Fault. The change in site azimuths is abrupt, with an eastward swing of 25°-30° occurring over a distance of approximately 8 km across the Eel River valley. North and east of Cape Mendocino, sites 50-300 km inland have velocities oriented west of north, consistent with the direction of northern Sierra Nevada-Great Valley (SNGV) block and Pacific-North America (P-NA) relative motion. Northern SNGV block motion is 11 mm/yr directed to the northwest. This velocity persists northwestward to within 50 km of the coast at the latitude of Humboldt Bay. Approximately 20 mm/yr of distributed P-NA motion occurs inland of Cape Mendocino across the northern projections of the Ma'acama and Bartlett Springs fault zones, and continues northward into the Humboldt Bay region. The direction of observed SNGV motion is obliquely convergent to the P-NA relative motion direction. The observed convergence between SNGV and the Coast Ranges begins approximately 130 km inland of the coast near Weaverville, CA. We observe 3-6 mm/yr of roughly east-west contraction in that area, which is near the location of the highest topography in the northern Coast Ranges. Near Humboldt Bay, NE-SW convergence of 16+/-2 mm/yr occurs from the coast to approximately 50 km inland. After removing an estimate of the interseismic subduction zone signal from the velocities, convergence near Humboldt Bay persists at 9+/-2 mm/yr. Therefore, half of the upper plate contraction observed near Humboldt Bay north of the Mendocino triple junction is driven by convergence of SNGV block and P-NA relative motion at a minimum of approximately 5 mm/yr