Topographic ridges express late Quaternary faulting peripheral to the New Madrid seismic zone, intraplate USA: Their tectonic implications

Abstract

Northeast-trending linear topographic ridges in Pliocene and Quaternary sediments adjacent to the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ), intraplate North America, have been long speculated to be neotectonic landforms related to reactivation of basement faults of the eastern Mississippi Valley Rift margin. Earthquake epicenters and paleoseismological studies show that eastern rift margin faults (ERMF) were active during late Quaternary south of a restraining bend in the Mississippi Valley Rift fault complex, but the ERMF zone north of the restraining bend (ERM-N) and underlying the linear ridges is seismically quiescent. A previous P-wave seismic reflection survey across the most prominent linear ridge (Rives lineament) revealed that it overlies a horst in Eocene sediment. To ascertain whether the Rives lineament could have been produced by surface faulting/folding, we collected electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) profiles to image the ridge's shallow subsurface features. We interpret shallow folding and faulting of late Pleistocene sediment in our ERT and GPR images. Additionally, convexity of multiple topographic profiles of scarps along margins of the Rives lineament was quantified and compared to the convexity of profiles of known neotectonic scarps and of fluvial terrace riser profiles within the region. Comparison of these profiles reveals a high degree of similarity between the scarps along the Rives lineament margins and the Holocene Reelfoot thrust scarp. When combined, our results strongly suggest late Pleistocene or Holocene folding and faulting created this ridge despite its current seismic quiescence, and thus they provide useful insight for assessing the seismic hazard potential of quiescent faults in strike-slip systems in general. We conclude that the late Quaternary series of movements documented on the Reelfoot thrust was initiated to accommodate crustal shortening after transpressional fault movements on the ERM-N became inactive in late Pleistocene or early Holocene and that movement along the ERM-N may resume if the Reelfoot thrust has an interval of inactivity in the future. Our results suggest how fault interactions within a strike-slip system can change, making faults with significant amounts of seismic potential appear as though they are inactive.