Accommodation by Varying Strain Regimes along the Northern Luzon Arc (Coastal Range, Taiwan) - Insights from Focal Mechanism Strain Inversions

Taiwan is the product of modern subduction polarity reversal coupled with arc-continent collision. The NW-moving Philippine Sea plate (PSP) subducts beneath the Eurasian plate (EUR) to the northeast of Taiwan at the Ryukyu trench, while overriding EUR south of Taiwan at the Manila trench, bringing the Luzon volcanic arc into collision with the deforming sediments of the Eurasian passive margin. The obliquity between the N-S trending Luzon Arc (LA) and NE-SW trending passive margin is causing the southward, temporal propagation of collision since ~6 Ma. The collided forearc and clastic sediments accreted by the advancing arc created the Coastal Range (CR), whose western-most extent lies at the suture zone between the two plates, the NNE-SSW trending Longitudinal Valley Fault (LVF). In order to understand the change in stress along the northern LA as it docks onto EUR, we inverted over 1900 relocated earthquake focal mechanism solutions within the on-land CR and offshore LA regions for spatial strain tensors. The focal mechanisms cover seismicity from 1991-2013, ranging in depths 0-112 km and magnitudes 2.22-6.92. For our analyses, we grouped the focal mechanisms based on 15' Latitudinal intervals along the study area and inverted the data for best-fit strain tensors using a micropolar continuum model of crustal deformation. Results suggest dominant compression in all regions with accommodation occurring through oblique reverse faults of varying dips. Trends of σ1 rotate clockwise (CW) from 100° in the south to 155° in the north. This CW rotation is also observed in the preferred nodal plane slip vector trends - from E-W orientation in the south to NW-SE in the north. The rotation of σ1 and slip vector trends creates varying degrees of obliquity with the direction normal (DN) to CR (112°). The trends in the southern part of the study area show obliquity counterclockwise (CCW) to DN; trends in the central part are near parallel to DN; and trends in the northern part show obliquity CW to DN. GPS vectors from 2008-2012 using an ITRF reference frame show similar changes in obliquity with GPS velocity trends oblique CCW and CW to DN in the southern and northern areas, respectively, and near parallel to DN in the central area. Our results suggest the accommodation of three varying strain regimes along the northern LA (CR) system - (1) strain partitioning within the Manila forearc basin due to the obliquity between N-S trending LA and NW trending convergence vector; (2) convergence-related strain in the central LVF and CR along NNE trending major thrust faults with a small oblique component due to the obliquity between DN and the convergence vector; and (3) strain partitioning along the Ryukyu trench and forearc basin due to the obliquity between northward subducting plate along the WNW- ESE trending Ryukyu trench and NW convergence vector. As a result, the different subducting characteristics of strain regimes correspond to the different stages of arc accretion/collision, from south to north: pre-collision, present collision, waning collision, and subduction.