MODULATION OF CRUSTAL FAULTING IN THE CRESCENT TERRANE BY THE VOLUME OF UNDERTHRUST ACCRETIONARY COMPLEX ALONG THE WASHINGTON CASCADIA FOREARC

Seismic profiling reveals widespread underthrusting of Cascadia accretionary rocks beneath basalts of the Crescent terrane, a large igneous province in the Washington forearc. Along margin variations in the volumes of the underthrust accretionary rocks appear to modulate the faulting within the overlying Crescent terrane, which hosts nearly all of the seismicity in the Washington forearc: the underlying accretionary rocks appear to deform aseismically. The underthrusting and underplating of large volumes of accretionary rocks on the Olympic Peninsula have uplifted and completely eroded a significant volume of the Crescent terrane, affecting the load-bearing strength of the forearc. I propose that as a consequence, the remnant Crescent terrane is actively deforming, as evidenced by the concentrated seismicity within it beneath Puget Lowland. This seismicity, focal mechanisms, fault geometries, and seismic tomography indicate that clockwise rotation and north-south compression of the forearc crust inferred from GPS data are accommodated by numerous thrust and strike slip faults in the remnant Crescent terrane. In addition to the spatial association between the erosion of the Crescent terrane on the Olympic Peninsula and the crustal faulting beneath Puget Lowland, support for the interpretation that the two are related also derives from the temporal coincidence between the mid to late Miocene uplift of the Crescent terrane on the peninsula and the mid-Miocene initiation of the thrust faulting in the lowland. In contrast, the underthrusting and underplating of lower volumes of accretionary rocks in the Washington forearc south of the Olympic Peninsula correlate with lower rates of crustal seismicity. These lower volumes of accretionary rocks have not caused the removal of a significant fraction of the Crescent terrane, resulting in a stronger, more structurally coherent Crescent terrane that deforms at lower rate than to the north.