Volcanoes as possible indicators of tectonic stress orientation — principle and proposal |
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| Authors: | Kazuaki Nakamura |
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| Institution: | Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y. 10964 U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | A method is proposed for determining the orientation of average tectonic stress, using surface features indicating radial dike patterns of volcanoes. The approximate pattern of radial dikes is revealed by the distribution of sites of flank eruptions on the slope of polygenetic volcanoes. This conclusion is deduced from the understanding that flank eruptions are caused by the magma that laterally offshoots from the main polygenetic pipe conduit and that conduits of flank volcanoes are most probably fissure-shaped because most of them are monogenetic volcanoes. Radial dikes are more likely to develop in a direction normal to the minimum horizontal compression of the regional stress. Thus, the distribution of flank craters will be elongate in the direction of the maximum horizontal compression of the regional stress.The regional stress can sometimes be ascribed solely to the effect of the gravity rather than tectonic stress. When a number of independent polygenetic volcanoes dotted with more than several flank volcanoes, are distributed in a belt or over a broad area, it is possible to distinguish the tectonic stress from the direct gravitational effect by the regional uniformity in orientation of the zones of flank volcanoes. When the maximum compression of tectonic stress is horizontal, the trends of the zones of flank eruptions on polygenetic volcanoes are more or less linear and parallel, and at a high angle to the trend of the main volcanic belt. |
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