Extreme multi-millennial slip rate variations on the Garlock fault, California: Strain super-cycles, potentially time-variable fault strength, and implications for system-level earthquake occurrence

Pronounced variations in fault slip rate revealed by new measurements along the Garlock fault have basic implications for understanding how faults store and release strain energy in large earthquakes. Specifically, dating of a series of 26.0+3.5/−2.5 m fault offsets with a newly developed infrared-stimulated luminescence method shows that the fault was slipping at >14.0+2.2/−1.8 mm/yr, approximately twice as fast as the long-term average rate, during a previously documented cluster of four earthquakes 0.5–2.0 ka. This elevated late Holocene rate must be balanced by periods of slow or no slip such as that during the ca. 3300-yr-long seismic lull preceding the cluster. Moreover, whereas a comparison of paleoseismic data and stress modeling results suggests that individual Garlock earthquakes may be triggered by periods of rapid San Andreas fault slip or very large-slip events, the “on–off” behavior of the Garlock suggests a longer-term mechanism that may involve changes in the rate of elastic strain accumulation on the fault over millennial time scales. This inference is consistent with most models of the geodetic velocity field, which yield slip-deficit rates that are much slower than the average latest Pleistocene-early Holocene (post-8–13 ka) Garlock slip rate of 6.5±1.5 mm/yr. These observations indicate the occurrence of millennia-long strain “super-cycles” on the Garlock fault that may be associated with temporal changes in elastic strain accumulation rate, which may in turn be controlled by variations in relative strength of the various faults in the Garlock-San Andreas-Eastern California Shear Zone fault system and/or changes in relative plate motion rates. •Multi-millennial, multi-earthquake strain super-cycles occur on the Garlock fault.•Super-cycles may coincide with temporal changes in elastic strain accumulation rate.•Variable strain accumulation rates may be tied to temporally variable fault strength.•Strain super cycle behavior precludes use of many probabilistic seismic hazard models.•A deeper understanding of earthquake occurrence requires system-level analysis.