Small plate tectonics in the northeastern Pacific

Lithospheric plate motions in the northeastern Pacific were complicated at about 2.5 m.y. B.P. by the movement along a major northeast-trending fault cutting Cascadia Basin. An estimate of the slip rate along this fault gives critical information on the relative motions of four geometrically interdependent blocks. The fault is presently inactive. Seventy km of slip along this fault during 2 m.y. or less gives an average slip rate of about 3-5 cm/yr or greater, and resulting plate motions suggest a significantly greater rate of net subduction along the continental margin off Oregon than off Washington and Vancouver Island. Subduction rate off Oregon is less sensitive to slip rate along this fault than is subduction off Washington.