Slow slip events (SSEs) accommodate a significant proportion of tectonic plate motion at subduction zones, yet little is known about the faults that actually host them. The shallow depth (<2 km) of well-documented SSEs at the Hikurangi subduction zone offshore New Zealand offers a unique opportunity to link geophysical imaging of the subduction zone with direct access to incoming material that represents the megathrust fault rocks hosting slow slip. Two recent International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions sampled this incoming material before it is entrained immediately down-dip along the shallow plate interface. Drilling results, tied to regional seismic reflection images, reveal heterogeneous lithologies with highly variable physical properties entering the SSE source region. These observations suggest that SSEs and associated slow earthquake phenomena are promoted by lithological, mechanical, and frictional heterogeneity within the fault zone, enhanced by geometric complexity associated with subduction of rough crust.

Shallow slow slip events have been well documented offshore Gisborne at the northern Hikurangi subduction margin, New Zealand, and are associated with tectonic tremor downdip of the slow slip patch and increases in local microseismicity. Tremor and seismicity on the shallow subduction interface are often poorly resolved due to their distance from land‐based seismic and geodetic networks. To address this shortcoming, the Hikurangi Ocean Bottom Investigation of Tremor and Slow Slip experiment deployed 24 absolute pressure gauges and 15 ocean bottom seismometers on the seafloor above the Gisborne slow slip patch to investigate the spatial and temporal extent of slow slip and associated tremor and earthquake activity. We present a detailed spatiotemporal analysis of the seismic signatures of various interplate slip processes associated with the September/October 2014 Gisborne slow slip event. Tectonic tremor begins toward the end and continues after the geodetically constrained slow slip event and is localized in the vicinity of two subducted seamounts within and updip of the slow slip patch. The subsequent, rather than synchronous occurrence of tremor suggests that tremor may be triggered by stress changes induced by slow slip. However, Coulomb failure stress change models based on the slow slip distribution fail to predict the location of tremor, suggesting that seamount subduction plays a dominant role in the stress state of the shallow megathrust. This and the observed interplay of seismic and aseismic interplate slip processes imply that stress changes from slow slip play a secondary role in the distribution of associated microseismicity.

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Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/geosciencefacpub Part of the Earth Sciences CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska -Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska -Lincoln.Fielding, Christopher R.; Whittaker, Joanne; Henrys, Stuart A.; Wilson, Terry J.; and Naish, Timothy R., "Seismic facies and stratigraphy of the Cenozoic succession in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica: Implications for tectonic, climatic and glacial history" (2008 AbstractIntegration of data from fully cored stratigraphic holes with an extensive grid of seismic reflection lines in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, has allowed the formulation of a new model for the evolution of the Cenozoic Victoria Land Basin of the West Antarctic Rift. The Early Rift phase (Eocene to Early Oligocene) is recorded by wedges of strata confined by early extensional faults, and which contain seismic facies consistent with drainage via coarse-grained fans and deltas into discrete, actively subsiding grabens and half-grabens. The Main Rift phase (Early Oligocene to Early Miocene) is represented by a lens of strata that thickens symmetrically from the basin margins into a central depocenter, and in which stratal events pass continuously over the top of the Early Rift extensional topography. Internal seismic facies and lithofacies indicate a more organized, cyclical shallow marine succession, influenced increasingly upward by cycles of glacial advance and retreat into the basin. The Passive Thermal Subsidence phase (Early Middle Miocene) is recorded by an evenly distributed sheet of strata that thickens somewhat into the depocenter but is continuous across and over the earlier rift strata to the margins of the basin. Internally, it contains similar facies to the underlying Main Rift, but preserves more evidence for clinoform sets and large channels, and in core comprises many short, condensed and strongly top-truncated stratal cycles with continued, periodic glacial influence. These patterns are interpreted to record accumulation under similar environmental conditions but in a regime of slower subsidence. The Renewed Rifting phase (Middle Miocene to Recent, largely unsampled by coring thus far) is represented by intervals that thicken significantly into the basin depocenter and that are complicated by evidence of magmatic activity (McMurdo Volcanic Group). This succession is further divided into lower and upper intervals, separated by a major unconformity that displays increasing angular discordance towards the western basin margin and Transantarctic Mountain Front. The youngest part of the stratigraphy was accumulated under the influence of flexural loading imposed by the construction of large volcanic edifices, and was formed in an environment in which little sediment was supplied from the western basin margin, su...

[1] Compression of the entire continental lithosphere is considered using twodimensional numerical models to study the influence of the lithospheric mantle on the geometry of continental collision in its initial stages. The numerical scheme incorporates brittle-elastic-ductile rheology, heat transfer, surface processes, and fault localization. Models are based on the central section of the New Zealand Southern Alps, where continental collision has occurred along the Alpine Fault since about 7 Ma. The results are compared to the surface relief, the GPS convergence velocity, the measured electrical conductivity, and the geometry of the crustal root imaged from seismic velocity measurements. The crustal deformation is characterized by localized uplift at the plate boundary (Alpine Fault) and by two secondary zones of faulting. One is located $60-80 km east of the Alpine Fault, at the start of upper crust bending (or tilting), and the other is located $100-130 km east of the Alpine Fault as a result of shear strain propagating to the surface through the ductile lower crust. The observed asymmetric shape of the crustal root is best reproduced for mantle lithosphere strength of the order of 200 MPa and an intermediate rate of strain softening. A lower strength of the mantle lithosphere can produce symmetric thickening, but the amplitude of the crustal root is too small when compared to observations. The observed 20 km offset between the maximum in surface relief and the crustal root was not satisfactorily reproduced. This offset is most likely due to the three dimensionality of oblique collision in the Southern Alps.