Plate Tectonics

This chapter on continental strike-slip faults and shear zones explores some of the largest faults on Earth, and also faults that represent the greatest seismic hazards. The structural pattern associated with continental strike-slip faults is presented, including strike-slip duplexes, riedel-shears, transpressional and transtensional fold and fault structures, and the chapter discusses how some large faults of this kind appear to transect the entire lithosphere. Shear wave splitting data are briefly presented as a type of data that gives information of the deeper part of continental strike-slip faults, with the Great Glen fault as an example. The well-known San Andreas Fault in the western US, the Dead Sea Fault, The Alpine fault in New Zealand and the Turkish Anatolian Fault are presented as examples of large faults of this kind and how they represent plate boundaries in continental crust. Continental strike-slip structures that do not represent plate boundaries are also discussed, with the active strike-slip faults along the Tibetan plateau and much older and deeply eroded examples from Gondwana (Brazil-Africa) and Canada.