Stress transfer and Quaternary faulting in the northern Alpine foreland

Within the SPP Mountain Building Processes in Four Dimensions (MB-4D) we studied postglacial and present seismic rupturing in the northern Alpine Foreland to better understand the impact and forces of mountain building. We started a seismological field experiment to densify the permanent monitoring networks and the AlpArray Seismic Network. The later was also supported as well as its predecessor UNIBRA (Hetényi et al., 2018; Schlömer et al., 2022). Our StressTransfer network consisted of five recording stations in the Upper Rhine Graben, five in the Molasse Basin and five around the Albstadt Shear Zone (Mader et al., 2021a). The latter are still operating due to the increased seismicity during the last years below the western Swabian Alb. We determined local minimum 1-D seismic velocity models to relocate known events in the study regions (Mader et al., 2021b). Waveform cross-correlation was done to detect hitherto unknown events and recover earthquake sequences around the Albstadt Shear Zone (Mader et al., subm.). To determine fault planes and rupture mechanisms we used relative event locations (hypoDD) and FOCMEC for fault plane solutions. For the Albstadt Shear Zone (ASZ), an NNE–SSW striking left-lateral strike-slip rupture zone, we determined a direction of the maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) of 140°–149°. Down to ca. 7–8 km depth, SHmax is bigger than SV (vertical stress); below this depth, SV is the main stress component. Beneath the shallow Hohenzollerngraben (ca. 2-3 km depth), which is nearly perpendicular to the ASZ, we found an NW-SE striking dextral strike-slip fault zone with very weak micro-seismicity in 11-15 km depth (Figure 1). This zone is possibly a reactivated old upper-crustal tectonic structure. At the interception of the ASZ and the NW-SE striking fault zone we observe NNW-SSE striking sinistral strike-slip and normal faulting micro-earthquakes which belong to a heterogeneous deformation zone with complex faulting. In Figure 1 we summarize our current model for the ASZ and its surroundings. The detection of many micro-earthquakes and the related active faults was only possible with the help of the additional temporal recording stations in the region and the studies of a PhD student (S.M.). We thank the DFG for funding our project and the State Earthquake Service Baden-Württemberg in Freiburg for providing data (Az. 4784//18_3303)