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Displacement along the Red River Fault constrained by extension estimates and plate reconstructions
Citation
Mazur, S and Green, C and Stewart, MG and Whittaker, J and Williams, S and Bouatmani, R, Displacement along the Red River Fault constrained by extension estimates and plate reconstructions, Tectonics, 31 Article TC5008. ISSN 0278-7407 (2012) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2012 American Geophysical Union.
Official URL: http://www.agu.org/pubs/authors/usage_permissions....
Abstract
Significant E-W extension and/or compression must have been generated by
displacements along the Red River Fault (RRF) since its curvature does not match a
small circle centered at the Euler pole for the Indochina–south China plate pair.
The amount of extension perpendicular to the RRF offshore Vietnam depends on the
magnitude of left-lateral displacement along the RRF. In general, the larger the left-lateral
displacement along the fault, the smaller the amount of E-W extension. All purely
strike-slip models of the opening of the South China Sea that assume large displacements
(>250 km) along the RRF encounter major problems because they imply little extension,
or even considerable shortening, offshore east Vietnam. This is inconsistent with the
presence of large elongated basins offshore Vietnam. Using a plate tectonic model,
we compare continental extension values implied by different magnitudes of displacement
along the RRF with crustal stretching estimates derived from 2-D profiles modeled from
gravity data. We utilize 2-D gravity forward models to restore the extended continental
margin crust to its original position prior to extension. We find that substantial amounts of
extension for offshore Vietnam can only be modeled assuming moderate displacements
along the RRF compatible with the presence of a southward subducting proto–South China
Sea. The total amount of ENE-WSW extension offshore northern Vietnam constrained by
our 2-D gravity profiles and gravity inversion increases southward from 36 to 89 km along
the Yinggehai Basin. These values of ENE-WSW extension are consistent with 250 km
of left-lateral displacement along the RRF.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | South China Sea, plate tectonics, gravity |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Geology |
| Research Field: | Marine geoscience |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences |
| UTAS Author: | Whittaker, J (Associate Professor Jo Whittaker) |
| ID Code: | 84431 |
| Year Published: | 2012 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 40 |
| Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
| Deposited On: | 2013-05-14 |
| Last Modified: | 2015-08-05 |
| Downloads: | 1 View Download Statistics |
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