52 Seismotectonic Sources

animals such as catfish (Japan), elephants (India) or a tortoise (Algonquin Indi-

ans). Similar to the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
many viewed earthquakes as a form of divine punishment. Nonreligious ideas
centered about subterranean winds or gases and widespread volcanic activity.
In the nineteenth century the repeated observation of fault scarps associated
with earthquakes in places such as India and California led many to believe that
faulting was related to or caused by earthquakes. It was not until the late
nineteenth century, and particularly after the evaluation of the 1891 Mino-Owari
earthquake by Japanese scientists that faulting emerged as the source of earth-
quakes. Howell (1986) provides an excellent summary of the history of ideas on
the cause of earthquakes. While there is some evidence that certain types of
earthquakes may be caused by volumetric changes rather than faulting, these
earthquakes, if indeed they do exist, would occur at great depths where the
identification of faults would be very difficult. In its present form any contro-
versy over the faulting origin of earthquakes is largely irrelevant to seismic
hazard analysis.
Jhe definition of seismotectonic -- sources involves the identification of ind=
-ual, or groups of, earthquake-generating faults, their preferred location (if not
directly observable) and t
&,
b
.------- existence
----.
- -- in soGe undefined
.--" --- --- random
-----/---.manner-
E r e f e ~ ~_____--
- & o ncan_ be _found.
---- f i i s cLpter Xscusses-iffe types of ZeXm-
tonic sources and the ways they are defined. Among those tools which are helpful
in defining seismotectonic sources are tectonic theory, seismicity, surface geolog-
ical investigations and subsurface geophysical techniques.

PLATE TECTONICS

In the mid to late 1960s a revolution occurred in our understanding of the

dynamics of the earth with the rise and acceptance of the theory of plate tecton-
ics. The location and nature of earthquake occurrence played a key part in the
definition and acceptance of this theory. Plate tectonics, in turn, plays a key role
in the definition of seismotectonic sources. Bullen and Bolt (1985) provide a
succinct description of plate tectonics:
This theory holds that the Earth's upper [outer] shell or lithosphere [italics
mine] consists of several . . . large and quasi stabile slabs called plates. The
thickness of each plate extends to a depth of about 80 km; the plates move
horizontally, relative to neighboring plates on a layer of softer rock. The
rate of movement ranges from a centimeter to ten centimeters a year over
the lower strength shell, called the asthenosphere. At the plate edges where
there is contact with adjoining plates, boundary tectonic forces act on the
rock causing physical and chemical changes in them. New lithosphere is
created at mid-ocean ridges by the upwelling and cooling of magma [mol-
ten rock] from the Earth's mantle [italics mine; the portion of the Earth's
interior below the crust extending from a depth of about 33 kilometers to a
depth of about 2900 kilometers]. In order to conserve mass, the horizon-
tally moving plates are believed to be absorbed at the ocean trenches where
 Seismotectonic Sources 53

a subduction [italics mine] process carries the lithosphere downward along

the Benioff zones [italics mine; dipping zones of earthquakes that can
extend to depths of hundreds of kilometers] into the Earth's interior.

Figure 4.2 is a schematic map of the six major plates and some of the smaller
plates that have been identified. It is important to note that while continents
such as Australia and South America are on a single plate, others such as Asia
and North America straddle more than one plate. Continents by themselves do
not form plates, but rather are relatively passive riders, moving along with the
rest of a particular plate. Continents are underlain by thicker continental crust
and lithosphere than that found beneath the oceans.
The most intense tectonic activity takes place at the plate margins. At the
mid-ocean ridges volcanic and seismic activity give evidence to the eruption,
solidification, and fracturing of the newly created lithosphere. This new lithos-
phere spreads out, or diverges, from the mid-ocean ridge adding new material to
the two plates on either side of the ridge. The mid-ocean ridge is called a
divergent plate boundary. As the magma rises and cools it assumes magnetic
properties in accordance with the existent magnetic field of the earth. The
knowledge that this magnetic field reverses itself with time and the observation
that the remanent magnetism of the sea floor exhibits parallel patterns on both
sides of the mid-ocean ridge that are consistent with these reversals, allowed
Vine and Matthews (1963) to discern that the sea floor does indeed move. Within
five years of this observation, the concept of sea-floor spreading had evolved into
the theory of plate tectonics. Physiographically, mid-oceanic ridges are subo-
ceanic mountain ranges that extend for tens of thousands of kilometers across
the world's ocean floors. They are marked by extensive volcanic activity and a
narrow band of shallow earthquakes (less than 70 km deep). Occasionally these
ridges protrude above the ocean creating islands such as Iceland where plate
forming processes can be readily observed. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an ex-
ample of a divergent plate boundary.
Because it has been determined that the surface area of the earth is not
increasing with time (see for example, Le Pichon 1968), the creation of new
lithosphere at one location must eventually be balanced by the destruction or
disappearance of an equivalent amount of lithosphere at another location. This
latter activity takes place at convergent plate boundaries. These boundaries can
be divided into two main types depending upon the types of lithosphere present.
The first type occurs when one or both of the plates consist of oceanic lithosphere
at the convergent boundary. When this happens an oceanic plate subducts or
underthrusts the overriding continental or oceanic plate. It enters the asthenos-
phere at an angle and eventually breaks up and is absorbed into the earth's
interior. In doing so it gives rise to several different phenomena. At the ocean
location, where it turns downward, an oceanic trench or deep is formed which
marks the surface boundary between the two plates. As it proceeds downward,
elements of the solid plate begin to melt and molten magma rises forming
volcanoes at the surface. This line of volcanoes is parallel to, but spatially
removed from, the trench and appears as an on-land volcanic mountain range
when the overriding plate is continental lithosphere or as an island arc (arcuate
 I
56 Seismotectonic Sources

ences are believed to be due to the extent of mechanical coupling (tightness)

between the subducting and overriding plate, with the Chilean end member
exhibiting the greatest amount of coupling.
Most of the earthquakes and release of earthquake energy in the world occurs
in the subduction zones surrounding the Pacific Ocean. The largest earthquakes
known, such as the 1960 Chilean earthquake, and the 1964 Alaskan earthquake
occurred in subduction zones. The fault rupture during the Chilean earthquake
alone extended over an area of some 200,000 square kilometers. The effects were
profound. Thousands of landslides occurred, damming many rivers, other river
channels subsided and shorelines were uplifted creating miles of new beaches.
Inland volcanic activity resumed. A giant oceanic seismic sea wave or tsunami
was generated, which not only affected Chile but also traveled across the Pacific
killing 61 people in Hawaii and 180 people in Japan (at a distance of more than
16,000 kilometers). As deadly as these great earthquakes are (the Chilean earth-
quake resulted in 5700 fatalities), smaller earthquakes occurring along the same
convergent boundaries can result in a similar or even greater number of deaths.

I' location of the repeated destruction of cities and towns. Most of this destruction
is attributed not to large Benioff zone earthquakes but rather to moderate size
events occurring somewhat inland near the volcanic mountain chains. In 1972,
for example, the city of Managua in Nicaragua was destroyed and more than
10,000 people were killed during an earthquake=Although its magnitude was
_
0 5 ~ 6 . 2 it, occurred at a depth of less than 5 kilometers d i k C t i T b e n i i the
-city. prGimity, depfi, and site con';r;ltions
I---

consist of continental lithosphere along the zone of convergence. In this case,

because of the thickness and properties of the continental lithosphere, it may be
hard to tell which plate is subducting and which plate is overriding. In fact it is
more appropriate to consider this continental-continental convergence as a col-
lision rather than a subduction. The large continental masses collide forming
mountain ranges and uplifted plateaus. The Himalayas are a result of the colli-
sion of India, a continental portion of the Indo-Australian plate, with the conti-
nental Eurasian plate. As shown in figure 4.2, earthquakes occur over a wide
band, at places more than a thousand kilometers wide. Concentrations of inter-
mediate depth earthquakes (between 70 and 300 kilometers deep) can be inter-
spersed
--- among th~s36Kow TarthijaWs;-not lik; th; inii-ea-g deeps-
quakes of'the Benioff zones observed in oceanic subduction. Continental
convergence earthquakes can be very large. The 1897 Assam, India earthquake,
for example, resulted in such extensive damage and surface disruption that the
effects in the meizoseismal area became the principal model on which MMI XI1
was based (Richter 1958). Its description by Oldham (1899) is one of the pioneer
works that ushered in the modem age of seismological investigation. Almost all,
if not all, of the continental-continental convergence earthquakes occur in the
Alpide-Himalaya Belt, a wide zone extending from southern Europe to south-
eastern Asia.
 Seismotectonic Sources 57

are neither the result of divergence nor convergence. These boundaries and the
resulting earthquakes occur when plates move past each other. No new lithos-
phere is created or old lithosphere is subducted. Understanding these transcur-
rent or transform boundaries played an important role in the evolution of the
theory of plate tectonics. In divergent and convergent zones tensional (normal
faults) and compressional (thrust and reverse faults) regimes dominate depend-
ing upon the whether the particular section of the plate or plates are being
compressed or pulled apart. In transform zones the plates are sliding past each
other and strike-slip faulting takes place. These transform faults can be found in
continental and oceanic lithosphere. They can offset mid-ocean ridges, subduc-
tion zones, or both. The more than 1000 kilometer long San Andreas Fault in
California (see figure 4.2), is a transform boundary between the North American
and Pacific plates, which are sliding past each other at the rate of several
centimeters per year. The fault connects two divergent boundaries, one in the
Gulf of California to the south and the other off the coast of the Pacific northwest
to the north. In doing so it divides California into two parts; the southwestern
sliver containing Los Angeles and San Diego (on the Pacific plate) is moving
northwest with respect to the rest of California. The large (magnitude = 8) 1857
Fort Tejon and 1906 San Francisco earthquakes occurred along the San Andreas
Fault. The Motagua Fault (see figure 4.2) is part of a transform boundary that
divides the eastward moving Caribbean plate from the westward moving North
American plate. This transform boundary separates two subduction zones, one
off the Pacific Coast of Central America and the other on the Atlantic Ocean side

of the plate boundary

- -processes. As a result another term has come into use, that
is,mid-plat-e earthquak&or those intraplate earthquakes often thousands of kilo-
meters- from the plate boundaries that bear no relationship to the divergent,
convergent, or transform zones at plate boundaries. In contrast to plate bound-
ary or plate margin earthquakes, plate tectonic theory offers no simple explana-
tion for the occurrence or specific location of mid-plate earthquakes. It is gener-
ally, but not universally, held that these earthquakes occur at weak zones in the
crust or lithosphere where stresses transmitted across the plates from the bound-
aries are relieved locally. The origin of these stresses is believed to be related to
the proposed mechanism of plate-tectonics, large scale convection currents in-
side the asthenosphere. These currents may push new plate material up and
away from the mid-ocean ridges, drag the plates along with them as they move
underneath the lithosphere, and pull the plates back down into the asthenos-
phere at subduction zones. Many believe that the predominant source of mid-
58 Seismotectonic Sources

plate stress is the ridge-push element of this mechanism. Unfortunately there

does not exist sufficient understanding or evidence that would permit the mean-
ingful incorporation of these concepts into seismic hazard analysis. Indeed, a
large part of this book deals with techniques that allow the estimation of seismic
hazard in the face of this lack of knowledge.
One additional source of earthquake activity associated with the theory of
plate tectonics relates to the concept of mantle plumes (Wilson 1965; Morgan
1971). Mantle plumes are believed to be deep columns of molten rock ascending
up through the asthenosphere and into the lithosphere, giving rise to centers of
volcanic and seismic activity on the surface of the earth called hot spots. Many
mantle plumes exist along the mid-ocean ridges and form part of the mid-ocean-
ridge divergent zones described above. Some, however, surface in the interior of
plates and explain the occurrence of localized earthquakes there. The island of
Hawaii, for example, in the middle of the Pacific plate is believed to be the result
of present-day mantle-plume activity. The existence of the currently inactive
chain of volcanic islands trailing off to the northwest of Hawaii is believed to be
evidence that the mantle plume is fixed relative to the moving Pacific plate. The
islands are thought to indicate locations on the plate that in the past were hot
spots directly over the plume. Indeed, dating the volcanic activity on these
islands and correlating it with the present location of plume activity is believed
to be a measure of the direction and velocity of present and past plate motion.
The Yellowstone region in the western United States is believed to be the loca-
tion of a mantle plume that surfaces within the continental lithosphere of the
North American plate. Seismic activity associated with mantle plumes can be
quite severe. For example, magnitude seven or greater earthquakes occurred in
1959 near Hebgen Lake, Montana (Yellowstone) and in 1975 in Hawaii resulting
in fatalities and much damage.
Given an all-encompassing theory such as plate tectonics it may seem that
the description of earthquake sources for the purpose of seismic hazard analysis,
at least in the vicinity of plate margins, would be a relatively simple matter. In
reality, although plate tectonics provides a rationale for the occu-e and
location m h q u a k e s along e G---- a r g i n s , it needs to be s s d by
d e f a ~ c 5 n i - b r ~ t y p of
e- sinformation
- Tf-iiis t~ be of practical use. This
sutiyintZ~information o3en c a n z o f more importance in defining seismic
hazard than the theory itself. One example would be defining seismic hazard
along the coast of central California. This was commented upon previously in
chapter 2 in the discussion of figure 2.8. From a variety of geological and geo-
physical measurements and observations it is believed that the relative motion
between the North American and Pacific plates as they slide past each other is
approximately six centimeters per year (Lyzenga and Golombek 1986). Geologi-
cal and geophysical measurements also indicate that the relative motion be-
tween the two sides of the San Andreas Fault is only approximately three centi-
meters per year. Not all the differential motion between the two plates is occurring
along the transform (San Andreas) fault boundary. Figure 4.4 shows seismicity
in the year 1980 in California and western Nevada along with some of the faults
in the area. The San Andreas Fault is outlined by many small earthquakes and
the rupture zones of the magnitude eight, 1857 and 1906 events. There are also
 PACIFIC OCEAN

Hanks 198i). I