Stress modeling of tectonic blocks at Cape Kamchatka, Russia using principal stress proxies from high-resolution SAR: New evidence for the Komandorskiy Block

A new data set of 851 lineaments mapped from European Remote Sensing satellites 1 and 2 full resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data are interpreted as geological proxies for stresses resulting from plate and block collision near the Cape Kamchatka region of the Kamchatka Peninsula using a Geographical Information Systems-based analysis. Numerical Manifold Method (NMM) analysis is used to model the stress field within the Cape Kamchatka region resulting from the collision of lithospheric plates and blocks. Results of our NMM model, using different plate motion and plate configuration in the region, are compared with orientation data for the mapped set of lineaments. These data suggest that the lineaments observed in SAR cannot be fully explained by a simple two-plate model in this in the Cape Kamchatka region. As an alternative, we propose that the data can be explained by the existence of the previously proposed Komandorskiy Block. Recent Global Positioning Satellite measurements in the Aleutian Islands support our lineament-derived model and show that the near Islands/Komandorskiy Island block of the extreme western Aleutians is moving independently of the North American Plate. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved