Stress tensor orientation derived from fault plane solutions in the southwestern Alps

Abstract

Gephart and Forsyth's method has been applied to estimate stress orientations from earthquakefa ult planes olutionso f the southwesterAn lps, a regionw heret he tectonic stress regime is known to be fairly complex. Fault plane solutions have been either taken from the literature or computed using data from local and regional networks. Data refer to seismiecv entso f magnitudien the range2 .5-5.3w hicho ccurreidn the iastd ecades at depths between 0 and 25 km. Two zones with a different stress orientation have been identifiedi n the studieda rea (44.0ø-45.ø5 N, 6.5ø-8.5ø E)- the westernz one,c orresponding to the cresto f the alpine belt, where a high-dipm aximumc ompressivset ressi s found, and the easternz one (Alps chaint o Po Plain transition),c haracterizedb y an almosth orizontal E-W al and a nearly vertical as. Hypocenterso f earthquakesu sedf or stressi nversionl ie in the depthr anges0 -15 km and 5-25 km in the westerna nd easternz onesr, espectivelyT. he transitionb etweenth e two st•resdso mainsis very sharp,a nd this is alsoi ndicatedb y sp•ace distributiono f earthquakei ndividualm isfitst o the respectives tressm odels.T he findings of the present study are a good match for tectonic models which assume E-W compression derivedf rom the Adria-Europein teractiona nd producing:( 1) major thrustingp rocesses in the easterns ideo f the chaina nd (2) secondaryte nsionale ffectsa t very shallowd epth beneatht he alpineb elt crest( westernz oneo f the area studiedi n this work).