World Stress Map Project

Newsletter June 2010

WSM Transfer to the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

In 2009 the transition of the World Stress Map Project to the GFZ German Re-
search Centre for Geosciences (www.gfz-potsdam.de) has been accomplished.
Neither politics nor strategy of the project has changed. It remains an independ-
ent research project with an open database access free of charge. Please update
your internet link to www.world-stress-map.org.

Publications
Special issue: In February 2010 the Tectonophysics special issue on Frontiers in
Stress Research has been published (Vol. 482). Here, you find 20 papers related
to stress research divided into three main sections. We thank all contributors and
reviewers for their great effort. For your convenience, please find attached to this
newsletter the content and the editorial of the special issue.
Book: Arno Zang and Ove Stephansson published at Springer in 2010 an excellent
book on “Stress Field of the Earth’s Crust”, 322 pages and a DVD including 17
video lectures and the WSM database. Further details are given at:
www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/geophysics/book/978-1-4020-8443-0

Achievements of the WSM database release 2008

In the special issue paper of Heidbach et al. (2010) details of the latest WSM da-
tabase release 2008 are described. In particular we present the refinement of the
WSM quality ranking scheme and the treatment of the orientation of maximum
horizontal stress (SH) from single focal mechanisms near plate boundaries, the
so-called Possible Plate Boundary Events (PBE). Furthermore we present in this
paper a dataset of mean SH orientations on a global 0.5° grid that is calculated
with an advanced application of the statistical analysis of bimodal data. Further
description of this analysis and the PBE is given in Heidbach et al. (2010); the
dataset can be downloaded from our website.

Update of the online WSM database interface CASMO

The service of CASMO (Create A Stress Map Online), our web-based database in-
terface, has been updated. In particular the selection of stress orientations de-
rived from single earthquake focal mechanisms has been extended significantly.
Furthermore, instead of sending the produced user-defined stress map via e-mail
it is now provided for download from our website.

WSM visualization with Google Earth

On our website we now provide a Google Earth kmz-file of the WSM database.
This is the fastest way to check the availability of stress data in your area of in-
terest. After import into Google Earth a simple mouse click on a stress symbol
will generate a pop-up window that provides all details of the data record.

Conferences and other dates

− ISRM conference in China, 25.-27. August 2010, (www.rockstress2010.org)
− Anderson conference on “Stress controls faulting, fracturing and igneous intru-
sion in the Earth’s crust”, 6.-8. Sept. 2010, University of Glasgow, Scotland,
(www.gla.ac.uk/events/andersonconference)
− Compact course on “Crustal Rock Stress”, 13.-15. Sept. 2010, Ostrava, Czech
Republic, (www.ugn.cas.cz/link/crs10)
 Tectonophysics 482 (2010) v–vi

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Tectonophysics
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / t e c t o

Special Issue

Frontiers in Stress Research

O. Heidbach
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

M. Tingay
Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University Perth 6845, Australia

F. Wenzel
Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hertzstr. 16, 76185 Karlsruhe, Germany

CONTENTS

Editorial
Frontiers in Stress Research
O. Heidbach, M. Tingay and F. Wenzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

I. Stress and strain measurements, analysis and interpretation

Global crustal stress pattern based on the World Stress Map database release 2008
O. Heidbach, M. Tingay, A. Barth, J. Reinecker, D. Kurfeß and B. Müller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
New criteria for systematic mapping and reliability assessment of monogenetic volcanic vent alignments and elongate volcanic vents for
crustal stress analyses
T.S. Paulsen and T.J. Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
A plea for more caution in fault–slip analysis
B. Sperner and P. Zweigel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Remarks on the relationship between the tectonic regime, the rake of the slip vectors, the dip of the nodal planes, and the plunges of the P,
B, and T axes of earthquake focal mechanisms
B. Célérier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(10)00023-5
vi Contents

Projection of mechanical properties from shallow to greater depths seaward of the Nankai accretionary prism
M.V.S. Ask and J.K. Morgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Integrating borehole-breakout dimensions, strength criteria, and leak-off test results, to constrain the state of stress across the Chelungpu
Fault, Taiwan
B. Haimson, W. Lin, H. Oku, J.-H. Hung and S.-R. Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Variation of vertical stress in the Carnarvon Basin, NW Shelf, Australia
R.C. King, M. Neubauer, R.R. Hillis and S.D. Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Localized rotation of principal stress around faults and fractures determined from borehole breakouts in hole B of the Taiwan Chelungpu-
fault Drilling Project (TCDP)
W. Lin, E.-C. Yeh, J.-H. Hung, B. Haimson and T. Hirono . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

II. Regional studies of the contemporary stress pattern

Present-day stress field of Southeast Asia
M. Tingay, C. Morley, R. King, R. Hillis, D. Coblentz and R. Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
African stress pattern from formal inversion of focal mechanism data
D. Delvaux and A. Barth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Present-day stress orientation in the Molasse Basin
J. Reinecker, M. Tingay, B. Müller and O. Heidbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Attached or not attached–evidence from crustal stress observations for a weak coupling of the Vrancea slab in Romania
B. Müller, O. Heidbach, M. Negut, B. Sperner and T. Buchmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Seismogenesis and state of stress in the UK
B. Baptie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
New constraints on the intraplate stress field of the Amurian plate deduced from light earthquake focal mechanisms
A. Barth and F. Wenzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Seismotectonic setting of the Karadere–Düzce branch of the North Anatolian Fault Zone between the 1999 Izmit and Düzce ruptures from
analysis of Izmit aftershock focal mechanisms
E. Görgün, M. Bohnhoff, F. Bulut and G. Dresen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

III. Modelling of stress and strain

Gravitational potential energy and regional stress and strain rate fields for continental plateaus: Examples from the central Andes and
Colorado Plateau
L.M. Flesch and C. Kreemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Present-day stress-field modelling of southern Italy constrained by stress and GPS data
S. Barba, M.M.C. Carafa, M.T. Mariucci, P. Montone and S. Pierdominici . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
A subsurface stress analysis and its possible relation with seismicity near the Itoiz Reservoir, Navarra, Northern Spain
M.A. Santoyo, A. Garcı́a-Jerez and F. Luzón . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Stress transfer and its implication for earthquake hazard on the Kunlun Fault, Tibet
X. Xiong, B. Shan, Y. Zheng and R. Wang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Three-dimensional numerical modeling of contemporary mantle flow and tectonic stress beneath the Central Mediterranean
A. Ismail-Zadeh, A. Aoudia and G.F. Panza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Contents Volume 482 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

 Author's personal copy

Tectonophysics 428 (2010) 1–2

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Tectonophysics
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / t e c t o

Preface

Frontiers in Stress Research

1. Introduction Geophysical Data Analysis Services (FAGS) that is currently transferred to

Knowledge of the stress state and its link to deformation is important
for a wide range of practical applications, including the stability of
underground openings, enhancing productivity from hydrocarbon and
geothermal reservoirs and seismic hazard assessment. Stress information
is also critical for resolving questions related to the driving forces of plate
tectonics and intraplate deformation. The systematic global compilation
of in-situ stress information began in 1986 with the World Stress Map
(WSM) project as a Task Force of the International Lithosphere Program
(ILP) under the leadership of Mary Lou Zoback. The ILP was established in
1980 by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) at the
request of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and the
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). In 2008 the WSM
project was appointed as a member of the Federation of Astronomical and
the new ICSU World Data Service (http://wds.geolinks.org).
First results of the WSM project were presented in 1992 in a
special volume of the Journal of Geophysical Research (Zoback, 1992).
The 1992 WSM database release contained 7300 data records. From
May 1995 to December 2008 the WSM continued as a research project
of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities located at the
Geophysical Institute of the Universität Karlsruhe, Germany. The
current 2008 WSM database release contains 21,750 stress data
records (Heidbach et al., this issue). The WSM database release 2008,
its detailed description and a service to plot user-defined stress maps
are provided at http://www.world-stress-map.org.
This special issue Frontiers in Stress Research is an assemblage of
papers that have been presented at the 3rd World Stress Map
conference in Potsdam, Germany, 15–17. October 2008. The strategic

Fig. 1. Global stress map based on the WSM database release 2008 using the 11,346 stress data records with of A–C quality, but excluding all possible plate boundary events (PBE) (Heidbach et
al., this issue). Lines represent the orientation of maximum horizontal compressional stress SH, line length is proportional to data quality. Colours of the symbols indicate stress regimes with
red for normal faulting (NF), green for strike–slip faulting (SS), blue for thrust faulting (TF), and black for unknown regime (U). Boxes indicate regional stress studies in this special issue.

0040-1951/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2009.11.009
 Author's personal copy

2 Preface

aim of the conference was to announce the transition of the WSM as a David Dewhurst Scott Reynolds
Bogdan Enescu Roberto Sabadini
research project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and
Marcus Fabian Mike Sandiford
Humanities to the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Claudio Facenna Miguel Santoyo
Here, the future of the WSM project is secured as the GFZ has agreed Sören Gregersen Blanka Sperner
to incorporate the WSM project into its research structure and will Gottfried Grünthal Ove Stephansson
provide resources for ongoing maintenance and development. Bezalel Haimson Dietrich Stromeyer
Jeanne Hardebeck John Suppe
Andreas Henk John Townend
2. This volume Richard Hillis Rongjiang Wang
Klaus Hinzen Malte Westerhaus
Following the three main objectives of the 3rd World Stress Map Ferenc Horváth Adrian White
Giampiero Iaffaldano David Yale
conference, the special issue aims to present modern concepts on stress
Alik Ismail-Zadeh Najwa Yassir
and strain measurement techniques, analysis of stress information and
integrated regional studies including numerical modelling. Thus, the
special issue is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on Acknowledgments
stress and strain measurement, analysis and interpretation. It begins with
the paper of Heidbach et al. on the revised quality ranking scheme of the The WSM project is a collaborative project that would not be possible
WSM project, the new WSM database release 2008 (Fig. 1) and a global without the effort of many scientists worldwide. We are indebted to
statistical wave-length analysis of the contemporary crustal stress pattern. numerous individual researchers and working groups all over the world
The following articles deal in detail with new advancements in measure- for providing stress data. In particular we would like to thank Birgit
ment techniques such as the methods for interpreting stress orientations Müller as one of the key senior scientists of the WSM project since its
from volcanic vent alignments (Paulsen and Wilson, this issue) and the beginning for her enthusiasm and the great effort she has put into the
measurement of present-day stress in the Taiwan Chelungpu-fault WSM project. We also thank the WSM advisory board members Egon
Drilling Project (Haimson et al., this issue; Lin et al., this issue). Althaus, John Cook, Roy Gabrielsen, Domenico Giardini, Onno Oncken,
The second section comprises a number of regional studies of the Christoph Reigber, Eckard Macherauch, Markus Rothacher, Eugen
stress pattern in regions where stress information was either sparse or Seibold, Mark Zoback, Mary Lou Zoback and its two advisory board
non-existent, such as the compilation of the first stress map of the heads Philipp Hartl (1995–2001) and Helmut Kipphan (2002–2008) for
Sunda plate in Southeast Asia (Tingay et al., this issue). Fig. 1 displays their long-term and ongoing support of the project.
the location of these studies. Most of the new stress data presented in In particular the WSM project is indebted to the Heidelberg
these papers is included in the 2008 WSM database release except for Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The WSM project was a research
the new data in Great Britain (Baptie, this issue) and Italy (Barba et al., project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities from
this issue) that will be added to the next WSM database release. 1995–2008 headed by Karl Fuchs (1995–2001) and Friedemann
The third section is dedicated to numerical modelling of tectonic Wenzel (2002–2008). In this period we received generous support
stresses. Modelling can provide an important tool for predicting the state and the project could develop and become the internationally
of stress in regions of sparse geological data and near geological features. accepted database for contemporary stress information for industry
Furthermore, only numerical modelling can unravel the open question of and academy likewise.
the stress sources and the geodynamic processes that drive plate tec- Furthermore we would like to thank, Jean-Paul Cadet and Philippe
tonics. However, the quality of the model results depends on the number Rossi from the Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CCGM),
and quality of model-independent constraints, such as stress and strain the International Lithosphere Program and its Task Force VII Temporal
observations. Thus, one of the future challenges is to combine stress and Spatial Changes of Stress and Strain that both supported to a large
models with the rapidly increasing observations of Earth's surface extent the dissemination of the WSM project amongst the international
deformation through satellite geodetic techniques such as GPS, InSAR and scientific community. Special thanks goes to Karl Fuchs who has always
Persistent Scatterer InSAR. In this sense this section presents the results been a great supporter of the WSM project and who initiated the project
from models that simulate the contemporary strain-rate and the crustal during his presidentship of the ILP in the mid eighties.
stress state and their changes on a wide range of spatial and temporal
scales. For example, Flesch and Kreemer (this issue) present a model that Oliver Heidbach
links the gravitational potential energy to the stress observations of the Guest editor
World Stress Map and the strain derived from GPS velocities. GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg,
14473 Potsdam, Germany
3. Thanks to reviewers Corresponding author. Tel.: ++49 331 288 2814
Fax: ++49 331 288 1127
This special issue could not have been produced without the effort E-mail address: heidbach@gfz-potsdam.de
and expertise of the reviewers of the articles herein. We thank
Mark Tingay
Rick Allmendinger Marek Jarosinski Guest editor
Brian Baptie Myra Keep
Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University Perth 6845, Australia
Salvatore Barba Marie Keiding
Andreas Barth Rosalind King E-mail address: M.Tingay@curtin.edu.au
William Bosworth Achim Kopf
Hans-Peter Bunge Ane Lothe Friedemann Wenzel
Evgenii Burov Björn Lund Guest editor
Alessandro Caporali Anna Maria Marotta
David Castillo Andrew Michael
Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Jean Chéry Stephen Miller Hertzstr. 16, 76185 Karlsruhe, Germany
Sierd Cloetingh Paola Montone E-mail address: friedemann.wenzel@kit.edu.
David Coblentz Chris Morley
Kurt Decker Birgit Müller
16 November 2009
Bertrand Delouis Suleyman Nalbant
Damien Delvaux John Reinecker