Blanco fracture zone, northeast Pacific Ocean
McManus, D.A. (1965). Blanco fracture zone, northeast Pacific Ocean. Mar. Geol. 3(6): 429-455
In: Marine Geology. Elsevier: Amsterdam. ISSN 0025-3227; e-ISSN 1872-6151, more
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| Abstract |
Blanco fracture zone is shorter and narrower than other fracture zones in the eastern Pacific, and instead of paralleling the trend of the nearby Mendocino zone, it converges with the Mendocino at an angle of 30-50°. Study of the bottom topography of the Blanco zone suggests an amount and direction of offset along the purported transcurrent fault of the zone (275 km, left-lateral) different from that arrived at in previous works dealing with the magnetic anomalies in the area (110 km, right-lateral). The cause of this discrepancy is still unknown. The anomalous non-parallelism of the Blanco zone to the Mendocino zone may be explained by considering the Blanco zone to be one of several northwest-trending Miocene structures in this area, although it is possible that future studies may reveal the zone to be an en echelon arrangement of east-west faults. Diverse interpretations relating transcurrent movement along the Blanco zone to the regional tectonic pattern are possible because of a lack of definitive criteria. |
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