Collaborative Research: Tectonically Driven Landform Response to the Mendocino Crustal Conveyor, Northern Coast Ranges, California

9902937

Furlong

In actively subducting plate boundaries, triple junctions migrate as a function of convergence obliquity, which is seldom orthogonal. Recent geodynamic models predict a complex crustal response to triple junction passage including initial thickening followed by thinning within a 5 m.y. time frame following passage. These geodynamic model results have specific geomorphological predictions, and geomorphological data from a region recently experiencing passage of a triple junction should provide a test of the geodynamic model. This project will gather geomorphological data along the northern California coast where the Mendocino triple junction has been migrating northward along the coast. Results will likely provide a test of the geodynamic model which should have broad applicability and also increase knowledge about the Mendocino triple junction area of northern California.