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Science 16 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5622, pp. 1121 - 1123
DOI: 10.1126/science.1082180
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Reports

Slip Partitioning by Elastoplastic Propagation of Oblique Slip at Depth

David Bowman,1,2* Geoffrey King,2 Paul Tapponnier2

Oblique motion along tectonic boundaries is commonly partitioned into slip on faults with different senses of motion. The origin of slip partitioning is important to structural geology, tectonophysics, and earthquake mechanics. Partitioning can be explained by the upward elastoplastic propagation of oblique slip from a fault or shear zone at depth. The strain field ahead of the propagating fault separates into zones of predominantly normal, reverse, and strike-slip faulting. The model successfully predicts the distribution of fault types along parts of the San Andreas and Haiyuan faults.

1 Department of Geological Sciences, California State University, Fullerton, 800 State College Boulevard, Fullerton, CA 92834–6850, USA.
2 Laboratoire de Tectonique, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, Cedex 5, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dbowman{at}fullerton.edu

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