Tectonic evolution of the Nootka fault zone and deformation of the
shallow subducted Explorer plate in northern Cascadia as revealed by
earthquake distributions and seismic tomography
Abstract
At the northern Cascadia subduction zone, the subducting Explorer and
Juan de Fuca plates interact across a transform deformation zone, known
as the Nootka fault zone (NFZ). This study continues the Seafloor
Earthquake Array Japan Canada Cascadia Experiment to a second phase
(SeaJade II) consisting of nine months of recording of earthquakes using
ocean-bottom and land-based seismometers. In addition to mapping the
distribution of seismicity, including an MW 6.4
earthquake and aftershocks along the previously unknown Nootka Sequence
Fault, we also conducted seismic tomography that delineates the geometry
of the shallow subducting Explorer plate (ExP). We derived hundreds of
high-quality focal mechanism solutions from the SeaJade II data. The
mechanisms manifest a complex regional tectonic state, with normal
faulting of the ExP west of the NFZ, left-lateral strike-slip behaviour
of the NFZ, and reverse faulting within the overriding plate above the
subducting Juan de Fuca plate. Using data from the combined SeaJade I
and II catalogs, we have performed double-difference hypocentre
relocations and found seismicity lineations to the southeast of, and
oriented 18° clockwise from, the subducted NFZ, which we interpret to
represent less active small faults off the primary faults of the NFZ.
These lineations are not optimally oriented for shear failure in the
regional stress field, which we inferred from averaged focal mechanism
solutions, and may represent paleo-configurations of the NFZ. Further,
active faults interpreted from seismicity lineations within the
subducted plate, including the Nootka Sequence Fault, may have
originated as conjugate faults within the paleo-NFZ.