Variable vertical movements and their deformation behaviors at convergent plate suture: 14-year-long (2004–2018) repeated measurements of precise leveling around middle Longitudinal Valley in eastern Taiwan

Abstract

• We provide 14-year-long leveling results across plate suture of Philippine Sea and Eurasia. • Along the LVF, shallow locked in north, and rapid creeping without locking in south. • The leveling data imply blind slip on the deeper part of the Central Range fault. • Active creeping occurs on a nearly vertical contact along the Chimei fault. To better characterize the vertical movements and the deformation behaviors across the plate suture of an arc-continent collision, we conducted annual repeated measurements on two precise leveling routes in a length of 34 and 37 km, respectively, across the middle part of the Longitudinal Valley in eastern Taiwan in 2004–2018. The 14-year-long results showed that the Longitudinal Valley fault (LVF) dominates the surface deformation: a) the middle LVF (Juisui fault) exhibited partially locked in the upper few kilometers, with a cumulative uplift rate of 9–10 mm/yr in a distance of 4 km; b) the southern LVF (Chihshang fault) showed a creeping behavior with a vertical rate of 24–27 mm/yr. In addition, we are able to characterize other features, including 1) tilting upward to the west in the eastern Central Range, suggesting activity on the west-dipping Central Range fault; 2) the hanging wall of the LVF showed tilting downward behavior to the east; 3) the Chimei fault, a suspected active fault, revealed active slip on the sub-vertical fault plane, that caused a vertical rate of 8–9 mm/yr. Putting the results under global ITRF system, the whole Juisui route was moving downward, supporting the notion that NNW subduction of the Philippine Sea plate starts around the latitude of the middle of the Longitudinal Valley. Finally, the co-seismic vertical deformation of the 2013 M L 6.4 Juisui earthquake was characterized by tilting upward to the west, consistent with stick–slip on the deeper part of a west-dipping interface of the forearc basement.