Seaward- Versus Landward-Verging Thrusts in Accretionary Wedges: A Numerical Modeling Study of the Effects of Heterogeneity in Pore Fluid Pressure and Frictional Strength

Abstract:

Whereas seaward-verging thrust faults are, by far, the most common large faults associated with accretionary wedges, the importance of the globally rare, landward verging thrusts has recently been highlighted given the prominence of landward vergence along the Cascadia margin as well as along the Andaman-Sumatra subduction zone, especially in the rupture area of the great 2004 earthquake. The mechanical processes that lead to seaward- versus landward-verging thrusts in accretionary wedges has long been a topic of debate. A weak frictional décollement is one explanation that indeed promotes landward vergence, but not only so, because the typical pattern is of dual verging conjugate faults. A non-brittle, ductile décollement is a second explanation that has been shown in the laboratory to produce a wide sequence of only landward-verging thrusts, but the mechanical causes are not well understood and numerical modeling studies have yet to reproduce this behavior. A seaward-dipping backstop is a third explanation; it promotes landward vergence locally, but more distally the backstop effects diminish and the sense of vergence transitions back to seaward. Mohr-Coulomb and minimum work theory predict that landward vergence should predominate when the direction of maximum principal compression dips landward. We hypothesize that such a condition can arise due to the migration of pore fluids and the associated spatial heterogeneity in frictional strength within the wedge. We test this hypothesis using 2-D numerical models that use a finite-difference, particle-in-cell method for simulating the deformation of an accretionary wedge with a viscoelastic-plastic rheology. With a uniform internal frictional strength, the calculations reproduce many of the faulting behaviors seen in prior laboratory and numerical modeling studies. We are exploring the impacts of heterogeneity in pore fluid pressure and frictional strength on the pattern and vergence of thrust faults.