Marine neotectonic investigation of the San Gregorio Fault Zone on the northern flank of Monterey Canyon, offshore central California

Abstract:

The San Gregorio Fault Zone (SGFZ) is part of the North American–Pacific plate boundary and is thought to accommodate right-lateral offset up to 10 mm/yr. Because much of the SGFZ in Monterey Bay, central California, lies offshore in steep submarine canyon bathymetry, little is known of its recent activity. We provide initial direct evidence for faulting where the SGFZ has been interpreted based on canyon morphology to cross the northern flank of Monterey Canyon. High-resolution multibeam bathymetry and chirp subbottom profiles were acquired during 13 dives with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s (MBARI) Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from 2009-2014 on the northern flank of Monterey Canyon, extending from the shelf edge ~15 km offshore Santa Cruz to ~1850 m water depth. Chirp profiles resolve layered sediments up to ~40 m subsurface in this region, and no fault scarps or seafloor lineaments are visible in the 1-m resolution multibeam bathymetry. At least one subsurface fault is identified within the SGFZ by offset reflections across a discrete, nearly vertical fault. However, this fault is only imaged where mass wasting has exhumed older strata to within ~25 m of the seafloor. Numerous slumps scars on the seafloor and packages of chaotic internal reflectivity in chirp profiles suggest that submarine landslide processes dominate the study area. To constrain the age of reflections offset by the fault, MBARI’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts, sampled faces of slump scars where the offset reflections crop out using vibracores and horizontal push cores. Radiocarbon dating of foraminifera within these core samples is being used to constrain the last recorded movement on the fault. Application of AUV and ROV methods allows detailed neotectonic investigation of significant offshore structures, like the SGFZ, that contribute to hazard assessment.