Microearthquake seismicity and fault plane solutions related to arc‐continent collision in the Eastern Sunda Arc, Indonesia

Abstract

The collision of Australia with the eastern Sunda and Banda arcs of Indonesia represents a modern example of the early stages of arc‐continent collision. In order to obtain a more detailed view of the tectonics of the collision zone, a microearthquake survey was conducted around the Savu Sea, the region that encompasses the transition from subduction of Indian Ocean lithosphere on the west to collision or subduction of Australian continental lithosphere on the east. Intermediate depth earthquakes were concentrated near Pantar Island, the easternmost active volcano of the Sunda arc, and outline a northwest dipping zone that strikes N65°E from 70 to 150 km depth. The seismic zone probably marks the western edge of the collision zone and its more northerly strike, and the orientations of nodal planes from fault plane solutions indicate a 25° bend in the subducted slab to a depth of at least 150 km. Because the convergence rate and the timing of collision from geologic observations on Timor suggest that the part of the slab now at 150 km depth was at the trench when Australia first collided with Timor, we infer that continental crust (or at least rifted continental margin crust) caused the bend in the convergent margin and has been subducted to 150 km depth. Fault plane solutions of several events show nearly vertical nodal planes that trend parallel to the strike of the seismic zone, along which a northwest‐side‐down sense of displacement is indicated: these events are concentrated at the southern (top) side of the seismic zone and suggest that the subducted lithosphere is presently detaching in the 50–100 km depth range beneath the eastern Savu Sea. Fault plane solutions for earthquakes within the upper part of the detaching slab (70–100 km depth) have P and T axes whose trends lie parallel to the strike of the seismic zone and horizontal, southeast trending B axes. These earthquakes are interpreted as due to stresses caused by the bend in the subducting plate.