What type of triple junction is the Mendocino?

What type of triple junction is the Mendocino?

The Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ) region straddles the transition between two of the most important segments of the North American plate boundary, separating the Cascadia subduction zone from translational tectonics of the San Andreas plate boundary.

What is Mendocino Triple Junction and Cascadia subduction zone?

The Mendocino Fracture Zone is a fracture zone and transform boundary over 4000 km (2500 miles) long, starting off the coast of Cape Mendocino in far northern California. It runs westward from a triple junction with the San Andreas Fault and the Cascadia subduction zone to the southern end of the Gorda Ridge.

What type of fault is the Mendocino fault?

In this compilation the name Mendocino fault zone is used for the dextral transform fault that extends westward from the Punta Gorda area of northern California to the Gorda Ridge. West of the Gorda Ridge, where slip is not expected, the name Mendocino fracture zone is appropriate.

Where is the Mendocino Fracture Zone located?

Mendocino Fracture Zone, submarine fracture zone in the eastern Pacific Ocean, defined by one of the major transform faults dissecting the spreading centre of the Gorda Ridges. The Mendocino Fracture Zone extends west from immediately offshore of Cape Mendocino, California, for at least 2,500 miles (4,000 km).

How big was the Farallon plate?

Farallon Plate subduction forms North American Cordillera In April 2013 Sigloch and Mihalynuk noted that under North America these subducting slabs formed massive, essentially vertical walls of 800 km to 2,000 km deep and 400–600 km wide, forming “slab walls”.

What plate boundary types converge at the Mendocino Triple Junction?

The boundary between the Pacific and Juan de Fuca Plates at the PC-NA-JF triple junction is a right-lateral transform fault—the Mendocino Transform Fault—as is the boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates—the northern San Andreas Fault.

What caused the Blanco Fracture Zone?

The quake was caused by slipping along an offshore fault called the Blanco Fracture Zone and has nothing to do with the more well-known Cascadia fault, which is believed to be overdue for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, said Paul Bodin, manager of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of …

Which 2 plates are separated by the Gorda Ridge?

The Juan de Fuca and Gorda ridges mark the divergent plate boundary (the spreading ridge) with the Pacific plate. The Cascadia trench marks the subduction zone with the North American plate.

How old is the Mendocino Ridge system?

Mendocino Ridge is an AVA (American Viticultural Area) located in Mendocino County of California. It lies to the west of the Mendocino AVA, with the two partially overlapping in the northeast corner. Formed in 1997, the AVA sits on a ridge system that extends between Anderson Valley and the Pacific Ocean.

Does the Farallon plate still exist?

The remains of the Farallon Plate are the Juan de Fuca, Explorer and Gorda Plates, subducting under the northern part of the North American Plate; the Cocos Plate subducting under Central America; and the Nazca Plate subducting under the South American Plate.

When did the Farallon plate Subduct?

Around 100 million years ago
Around 100 million years ago, the Farallon oceanic plate lay between the converging Pacific and North American plates, which eventually came together to form the San Andreas fault. As those plates converged, much of the Farallon was subducted underneath North America and eventually sank deep into the mantle.

What three plates meet at Cape Mendocino?

The Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ) is the point where the Gorda plate, the North American plate, and the Pacific plate meet, in the Pacific Ocean near Cape Mendocino in northern California.

Where is the Mendocino Triple Junction in California?

The Mendocino Triple Junction is located at the eastern end of the Mendocino Fracture Zone where it approaches Cape Mendocino. The Mendocino Triple Junction (MTJ) is the point where the Gorda plate, the North American plate, and the Pacific plate meet, in the Pacific Ocean near Cape Mendocino in northern California.

What are the three plates that make up the Mendocino?

A triple junction is the intersection of three plate boundaries. Plates are either ridges (R), trenches (T), or transform faults (F). The concentration of earthquakes at Cape Mendocino is known as the Mendocino Triple Junction.

Where is the Triple Junction in North America?

This triple junction is the location of a change in the broad plate motions which dominate the west coast of North America, linking convergence of the northern Cascadia subduction zone and translation of the southern San Andreas Fault system.

What is the distance south of the MTJ?

The distance south of the MTJ over which heat flow increases gives an indication of the timing of development of the heat flow anomaly. The observed surface heat flow doubles over a distance of ~200 km, corresponding to a timeframe of migration of 4–5 Ma.