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Geophysical Research Letter

Simon D. Daout, Sylvain D. Barbot, Gilles Peltzer, M P. Doin, Zhen Liu, & Romain Jolivet

Published November 9, 2016, SCEC Contribution #7112

Due to the limited resolution at depth of geodetic and other geophysical data, the geometry and the loading rate of the ramp-décollement faults below the metropolitan Los Angeles are poorly understood. Here, we complement these data by assuming conservation of motion across the Big Bend of the San Andreas Fault. Using a Bayesian approach, we constrain the geometry of the ramp-décollement system from the Mojave block to Los Angeles and propose a partitioning of the convergence with 25.5 +- 0:5mm/yr and 3.1 +- 0.6mm/yr of strike-slip motion along the San Andreas Fault and the Whittier Fault, with 2.7 +- 0.9mm/yr and 2.5 +- 1.0mm/yr of updip movement along the Sierra Madre and the Puente Hills thrusts. Incorporating conservation of motion in geodetic models of strain accumulation reduces the number of free parameters and constitutes a useful methodology to estimate the tectonic loading and seismic potential of buried fault networks.

Citation
Daout, S. D., Barbot, S. D., Peltzer, G., Doin, M. P., Liu, Z., & Jolivet, R. (2016). Geophysical Research Letter. Constraining the Kinematics of Metropolitan Los Angeles Faults 1 with a Slip-Partitioning Model, 43(21), 11,192-11,201.