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Abstract A long‐standing question is how felsic continental crust is differentiated from its mafic parent mantle magmas. One currently proposed fundamental mechanism is lithospheric foundering and loss of dense material into the mantle. A type locality is the young extinct arc forming the Sierra Nevada, California. Here, we image a distinct anisotropic shear layer below the crust‐mantle boundary using receiver functions. The sense of shear is consistent with west‐ to southwestward removal of lithosphere. The shear signal is strongest in the southern Sierra, where lithospheric foundering was proposed to have concluded several million years ago, and is deeper and less pronounced in the central Sierra, where ongoing lithospheric foundering is corroborated by a band of unusually deep (40+ km) seismicity along the western foothills. Our observations provide progressive snapshots of a lithospheric foundering process spanning several million years and hundreds of kilometers, illuminating a fundamental differentiation process by which continents are built. 

Abstract The style of convective force transmission to plates and strain‐localization within and underneath plate boundaries remain debated. To address some of the related issues, we analyze a range of deformation indicators in southern California from the surface to the asthenosphere. Present‐day surface strain rates can be inferred from geodesy. At seismogenic crustal depths, stress can be inferred from focal mechanisms and splitting of shear waves from local earthquakes via crack‐dependent seismic velocities. At greater depths, constraints on rock fabrics are obtained from receiver function anisotropy,P_nandPtomography, surface wave tomography, and splitting ofSKSand other teleseismic core phases. We construct a synthesis of deformation‐related observations focusing on quantitative comparisons of deformation style. We find consistency with roughly N‐S compression and E‐W extension near the surface and in the asthenospheric mantle. However, all lithospheric anisotropy indicators show deviations from this pattern.P_nfast axes and dipping foliations from receiver functions are fault‐parallel with no localization to fault traces and match post‐Farallon block rotations in the Western Transverse Ranges. Local shear wave splitting orientations deviate from the stress orientations inferred from focal mechanisms in significant portions of the area. We interpret these observations as an indication that lithospheric fabric, developed during Farallon subduction and subsequent extension, has not been completely reset by present‐day transform motion and may influence the current deformation behavior. This provides a new perspective on the timescales of deformation memory and lithosphere‐asthenosphere interactions. 

Abstract Plate motions in Southern California have undergone a transition from compressional and extensional regimes to a dominantly strike‐slip regime in the Miocene. Strike‐slip motion is most easily accommodated on vertical faults, and major transform fault strands in the region are typically mapped as near vertical on the surface. However, some previous work suggests that these faults have a dipping geometry at depth. We analyze receiver function arrivals that vary harmonically with back azimuth at all available broadband stations in the region. The results show a dominant signal from contrasts in dipping foliation as well as dipping isotropic velocity contrasts from all crustal depths, including from the ductile middle to lower crust. We interpret these receiver function observations as a dipping fault‐parallel structural fabric that is pervasive throughout the region. The strike of these structures and fabrics is parallel to that of nearby fault surface traces. We also plot microseismicity on depth profiles perpendicular to major strike‐slip faults and find consistently NE dipping features in seismicity changing from near vertical (80–85°) on the Elsinore Fault in the Peninsular Ranges to 60–65° slightly further inland on the San Jacinto Fault to 50–55° on the San Andreas Fault. Taken together, the dipping features in seismicity and in rock fabric suggest that preexisting fabrics and faults may have acted as strain guides in the modern slip regime, with reactivation and growth of strike‐slip faults along northeast dipping fabrics both above and below the brittle‐ductile transition. 

Shear wave splitting of teleseismic core phases such as SKS is commonly used to constrain mantle seismic anisotropy, a proxy for convective deformation. In plate boundaries, sharp lateral variations of splitting measurements near transform faults are often linked to deformation within a lithospheric shear zone below, but potential seismic waveform effects from heterogeneous structure on small scales may influence the interpretation. Here, we explore possible finite frequency effects on shear wave splitting near fault zones in a fully three‐dimensional anisotropic setting. We find that shear zones wider than 80 km, a scale set by the Fresnel zone, can be clearly detected, but narrower zones are less distinguishable. Near the edge of the shear zone, the combined effect of anisotropy and scattering generates false splitting measurements with large delay times and fast axis orientation approaching the back‐azimuth, a bias which can only be identified when records from different back‐azimuths are analyzed together. This substantiates that back‐azimuthal variations of splitting can arise not just from vertical layering but also lateral changes of anisotropic media. We also test the effects of shear zone edge geometry, epicentral distance, filtering frequency, crustal thickness, and sediment cover. Our study delineates the ability of shear wave splitting to resolve and investigate fault zones, and emphasizes the importance of good azimuthal coverage to correctly interpret observed anisotropy. Based on revisiting previous shear wave splitting and lithospheric deformation studies, we infer that many crustal fault zones are underlain by lithospheric shear zones at least 20 km wide. 

Azimuthal variations in receiver function conversions can image lithospheric structural contrasts and anisotropic fabrics that together compose tectonic grain. We apply this method to data from EarthScope Transportable Array in Alaska and additional stations across the northern Cordillera. The best-resolved quantities are the strike and depth of dipping fabric contrasts or interfaces. We find a strong geographic gradient in such anomalies, with large amplitudes extending inboard from the present-day subduction margin, the Aleutian arc, and an influence of flat-slab subduction of the Yakutat microplate north of the Denali fault. An east–west band across interior Alaska shows low- amplitude crustal anomalies. Anomaly amplitudes correlate with structural intensity (density of aligned geological elements), but are the highest in areas of strong Cenozoic deformation, raising the question of an influence of current stress state. Imaged subsurface strikes show alignment with surface structures. We see concentric strikes around arc volcanoes implying dipping magmatic structures and fabric into the middle crust. Regions with present-day weaker deformation show lower anomaly amplitudes but structurally aligned strikes, suggesting pre-Cenozoic fabrics may have been overprinted or otherwise modified. We observe general coherence of the signal across the brittle-plastic transition. Imaged crustal fabrics are aligned with major faults and shear zones, whereas intrafault blocks show imaged strikes both parallel to and at high angles to major block-bounding faults. High-angle strikes are subparallel to neotectonic deformation, seismicity, fault lineaments, and prominent metallogenic belts, possibly due to overprinting and/or co-evolution with fault-parallel fabrics. We suggest that the underlying tectonic grain in the northern Cordillera is broadly distributed rather than strongly localized. Receiver functions thus reveal key information about the nature and continuity of tectonic fabrics at depth and can provide unique insights into the deformation history and distribution of regional strain in complex orogenic belts.