Paleostress analyses in the uppermost footwalls of the Whipple detachment and the West Salton detachment faults, southern California

Low-angle normal faults (LANFs) slip while nearly perpendicular to the regional S1, presenting a mechanical paradox that may be explained by rotation of S1 toward the fault as it is approached, weak materials reducing friction and/or high pore-fluid pressure. Well-exposed LANF footwalls provide opportunities for detailed studies of weak faults. Paleostress inversions of fault-slip data coupled with structural and chemical analyses of footwall rocks are in progress on the Whipple detachment fault (WDF; >40 km Miocene slip; evolved from ductile shear zone to brittle fault) and the West Salton detachment fault (WSDF; ~10 km slip during dextral-wrench tectonism coeval with San Andreas Fault slip). Both were folding during detachment slip. Paleostress analyses indicate that both faults slipped mainly in extensional stress fields (sub-vertical S1) and in axial compression (S2 ≈ S3). Over 40% of extensional stress fields yield S1 plunging >70° relative to the detachment, but ~30% yield plunges of 40° to 60° relative to the detachment. Thus, the stress field may have been locally and/or temporarily rotated away from sub-vertical during detachment slip. About 15% of the inversions yield shortening stress fields (S1 ~horizontal) consistent with folding and/or dextral-wrench deformation. Mutually cross-cutting relationships between fracture sets suggest that the stress fields may have alternated through time. “Mini-detachments” (MDs) are small, detachment-parallel faults that are structurally analogous to the main faults. Inversions yield S1 ~45° from the MDs and a larger magnitude of S2 relative to S3. Damage zones subjacent to MD fault cores commonly yield more moderately plunging S1 than do MD fault cores or deeper rocks. Petrological evidence suggests that the MDs formed early in the detachment history (Selverstone et al., GSA Abstract, 2009). If their damage zones also formed early, then S1 may have been shallower early in detachment history and(or) at greater depth. EMP and XRD analyses show that all ultracataclasites are dominated by quartz ± feldspars. WSDF ultracataclasite also contains kaolinite-montmorillonite clay ± zeolites, whereas that from the WDF has little to no clay or other weak minerals. Our results suggest that stress rotation was not common during WDF or WSDF slip through most of the brittle crust. Weak materials may have aided WSDF slip, but elevated pore-fluid pressure was probably needed for WDF slip.