Asymmetric alluvial fans along strike-slip faults: A potential slip-rate record?

Abstract:

We investigate the phenomenon of asymmetric alluvial fan morphology along strike-slip faults. From analysis of high-resolution topographic data, we find that asymmetric alluvial fans are common along several strike-slip faults in the western United States. Affected fans are steeper in the direction of translation of the sediment source, often resulting in stream deflections counter to that expected from the sense of fault slip (e.g. left deflected streams along dextral faults). We hypothesize that fan asymmetry results from lateral translation of the sediment source relative to the depocenter. This relative motion changes the accommodation space in such a way that one side of the alluvial fan continuously progrades while the other is gradually abandoned. Therefore, lateral translation results in radial asymmetry of slopes about the fan apex. As a first approximation, we model this asymmetry as a result of diffusive sediment transport down fan. From this analysis, we predict that the degree of asymmetry of the alluvial fan is controlled by the ratio of sediment flux to fault slip rate. Qualitatively, more rapidly slipping faults should host more highly asymmetric fans; conversely, high sediment flux will obscure asymmetry. By measuring the sediment flux, through catchment-average concentration of cosmogenic isotopes or other means, we show that it is theoretically possible to quantify strike-slip fault slip-rates and alluvial-fan sediment transport rates using alluvial fan morphometry.