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Tectonic Processes

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By Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center June 8, 2020

Geophysical research utilizes analytical and numerical tools to quantify tectonic processes. Basic geophysical research lays the ground for understanding of Earth processes, which affect natural hazards and resource estimation.
 

Mid-plate volcanoes load tectonic plates and cause the plates to flex. Plate flexure, in turn, can modify the volcanic eruptions. In transform plate boundaries, the majority of relative plate motion takes place by lateral displacement between two tectonic plates. Read ten Brink and others research papers.

  • Queen Charlotte Fault (SE Alaska-Canada)
  • The Dead Sea Transform
  • California

At rift zones the continental crust and lithosphere are subjected to extensional stresses, which result in the formation of sedimentary basins. These basins sometime accumulate natural resources of oil, gas and water. Read ten Brink and others research papers.

  • Basins along the Dead Sea Transform
  • Baikal rift and Cayman Trough
  • Rift-margin uplift: The Transantarctic Mountains

In subduction plate boundaries, one tectonic plate sinks under another tectonic plate. The process of sinking is often accompanied by large earthquakes, volcanism, and the building of mountains.  Read ten Brink and others research papers.

  • Northern Caribbean subduction zone around U.S. territories
  • Cascadia subduction zone in the northwestern U.S.

Electronic Media

Podcast Title: Science in the Middle East New York Academy of Sciences - Science and the City. June 20, 2008 Format: MP3, 11.8 MByte Running Time: 00:25:08

Webinar Lecture Title: Size Distribution of Submarine Landslides and Its Implication to Tsunami Hazards Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:12:00 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Size_Distribution_Submar…

Lecture Title: Assessing Tsunami Hazards to U.S. East Coast Using Relationships Between Submarine Landslides and Earthquakes Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:21:30 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Assessing_Tsunami_Hazard…

Lecture Title: Deformation of  the Pacific-North-American  plate boundary at queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Seminars, October 2017.Running Time:00:45:00 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/contactus/menlo/seminars/1100

Educational Film Title: The Puerto Rico Trench: Exploring the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean 14-minute educational film about sea floor mapping and tsunami and earthquake hazards, 2004, by Joram ten Brink For a DVD copy of the movie, please contact: Dr. Uri ten Brink, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center  384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 1-508-457-2396; utenbrink@usgs.gov

 

Publications associated with Uri ten Brink's tectonic processes research.

Filter Total Items: 40

Deformation of the Pacific/North America plate boundary at Queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology

The Pacific/North America (PA/NA) plate boundary between Vancouver Island and Alaska is similar to the PA/NA boundary in California in its kinematic history and the rate and azimuth of current relative motion, yet their deformation styles are distinct. The California plate boundary shows a broad zone of parallel strike slip and thrust faults and folds, whereas the 49‐mm/yr PA/NA relative...
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, Nathaniel C. Miller, Brian D. Andrews, Daniel S. Brothers, Peter J. Haeussler
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Shallower structure and geomorphology of the southern Puerto Rico offshore margin

Oblique convergence between the North American and Caribbean plates along the eastern Greater Antilles island arc has yielded the compressive Muertos margin in the backarc region. The Muertos margin is characterized by an asymmetric thrust belt with overall opposite vergence to the subduction system in the forearc region. Offshore south of Puerto Rico, this thrust belt disappears and is...
Authors
Bruna J.L. Granja, A. Muñoz-Martín, A. Carbó-Gorosabel, Estrada P. Llanes
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Bathymetric Terrain Model of the Puerto Rico Trench and the Northeastern Caribbean Region for Marine Geological Investigations

Multibeam bathymetry data collected in the Puerto Rico Trench and Northeast Caribbean region are compiled into a seamless bathymetric terrain model for broad-scale geological investigations of the trench system. These data, collected during eight separate surveys between 2002 and 2013, covering almost 180,000 square kilometers are published here in large format map sheet and digital...
Authors
Brian D. Andrews, Uri S. ten Brink, William W. Danforth, Jason D. Chaytor, J Granja-Bruna, A Carbo-Gorosabel
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Slab tears and intermediate-depth seismicity

Active tectonic regions where plate boundaries transition from subduction to strike slip can take several forms, such as triple junctions, acute, and obtuse corners. Well-documented slab tears that are associated with high rates of intermediate-depth seismicity are considered here: Gibraltar arc, the southern and northern ends of the Lesser Antilles arc, and the northern end of Tonga...
Authors
Hallie E. Meighan, Uri S. ten Brink, Jay Pulliam
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Seismic evidence for a slab tear at the Puerto Rico Trench

The fore-arc region of the northeast Caribbean plate north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands has been the site of numerous seismic swarms since at least 1976. A 6 month deployment of five ocean bottom seismographs recorded two such tightly clustered swarms, along with additional events. Joint analyses of the ocean bottom seismographs and land-based seismic data reveal that the swarms...
Authors
Hallie E. Meighan, Jay Pulliam, Uri S. ten Brink, Alberto M. López-Venegas

Geometry and subsidence history of the Dead Sea basin: A case for fluid-induced mid-crustal shear zone?

Pull‐apart basins are narrow zones of crustal extension bounded by strike‐slip faults that can serve as analogs to the early stages of crustal rifting. We use seismic tomography, 2‐D ray tracing, gravity modeling, and subsidence analysis to study crustal extension of the Dead Sea basin (DSB), a large and long‐lived pull‐apart basin along the Dead Sea transform (DST). The basin gradually...
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, C.H. Flores
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program

Gravity modeling of the Muertos Trough and tectonic implications (north-eastern Caribbean)

The Muertos Trough in the northeast Caribbean has been interpreted as a subduction zone from seismicity, leading to infer a possible reversal subduction polarity. However, the distribution of the seismicity is very diffuse and makes definition of the plate geometry difficult. In addition, the compressive deformational features observed in the upper crust and sandbox kinematic modeling do...
Authors
Bruna J.L. Granja, A. Muñoz-Martín, Uri S. ten Brink, Andrés Carbó-Gorosabel, Estrada P. Llanes, J. Martín-Dávila, D. Cordoba-Barba, Morollon M. Catalan

Extension in Mona Passage, Northeast Caribbean

As shown by the recent Mw 7.0 Haiti earthquake, intra-arc deformation, which accompanies the subduction process, can present seismic and tsunami hazards to nearby islands. Spatially-limited diffuse tectonic deformation within the Northeast Caribbean Plate Boundary Zone likely led to the development of the submerged Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. GPS geodetic...
Authors
J.D. Chaytor, Uri S. ten Brink
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Morphotectonics of the central Muertos thrust belt and Muertos Trough (northeastern Caribbean)

Multibeam bathymetry data acquired during the 2005 Spanish R/V Hesp??rides cruise and reprocessed multichannel seismic profiles provide the basis for the analysis of the morphology and deformation in the central Muertos Trough and Muertos thrust belt. The Muertos Trough is an elongated basin developed where the Venezuelan Basin crust is thrusted under the Muertos fold-and-thrust belt...
Authors
Bruna J.L. Granja, Uri S. ten Brink, Andrés Carbó-Gorosabel, A. Muñoz-Martín, Ballesteros M. Gomez

Bivergent thrust wedges surrounding oceanic island arcs: Insight from observations and sandbox models of the northeastern caribbean plate

At several localities around the world, thrust belts have developed on both sides of oceanic island arcs (e.g., Java-Timor, Panama, Vanuatu, and the northeastern Caribbean). In these localities, the overall vergence of the backarc thrust belt is opposite to that of the forearc thrust belt. For example, in the northeastern Caribbean, a north-verging accretionary prism lies to the north of...
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, S. Marshak, Bruna J.L. Granja

Magnetic character of a large continental transform: an aeromagnetic survey of the Dead Sea Fault

New high-resolution airborne magnetic (HRAM) data along a 120-km-long section of the Dead Sea Transform in southern Jordan and Israel shed light on the shallow structure of the fault zone and on the kinematics of the plate boundary. Despite infrequent seismic activity and only intermittent surface exposure, the fault is delineated clearly on a map of the first vertical derivative of the...
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, Michael Rybakov, Abdallah S. Al-Zoubi, Yair Rotstein
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

The Northern end of the Dead Sea Basin: Geometry from reflection seismic evidence

Recently released reflection seismic lines from the Eastern side of the Jordan River north of the Dead Sea were interpreted by using borehole data and incorporated with the previously published seismic lines of the eastern side of the Jordan River. For the first time, the lines from the eastern side of the Jordan River were combined with the published reflection seismic lines from the...
Authors
A. S. Al-Zoubi, T. Heinrichs, I. Qabbani, Uri S. ten Brink
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
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