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Bookshelf tectonics: Rotated crustal blocks within the Sovanco Fracture Zone
Author(s) -
Cowan Darrel S.,
Botros Mona,
Johnson H. Paul
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl013i010p00995
Subject(s) - sinistral and dextral , geology , lineament , transform fault , seismology , fracture zone , shear zone , bathymetry , tectonics , clockwise , ridge , shear (geology) , crust , oceanic crust , strike slip tectonics , plate tectonics , subduction , geophysics , paleontology , geometry , rotation (mathematics) , oceanography , mathematics
The 15 kilometer wide Sovanco Fracture Zone is a dextral‐slip transform fault linking the Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridges in the N.E. Pacific. SEABEAM bathymetry shows that the Sovanco comprises several rhomb‐shaped elevated blocks of oceanic crust bounded by northeast‐ and northwest‐trending lineaments. We hypothesize that the northeast‐trending lineaments are sinistral strike‐slip faults that are reactivated ridge‐parallel normal faults. Both the sinistral block‐bounding faults and the blocks themselves have rotated clockwise about 30 degrees in response to dextral shear within the Sovanco zone.