Strike-slip plate boundaries are lithospheric scale, several hundreds of kilometers-long geological structures encountered in various geodynamic contexts, from strike-slip boundaries connecting rift zones with convergent belts (e.g. Dead Sea Fault) to oblique convergence (e.g. Sumatra Fault) and lateral escape settings (e.g. Hayuan Fault). In the deep ocean, transform faults offset mid-oceanic ridge segments (e.g. Romanche Transform) and represent a particular case of strike-slip boundary. Here, earthquakes are distributed between the two adjacent ridge segments, whereas the inactive part of the system is referred as the fracture zone. At the geological time scale, strike-slip motion can juxtapose lithospheric blocks with different physical properties (formation of bimaterial interfaces), the extreme case being the juxtaposition of continental and oceanic lithosphere. According to the rheological properties of the lithosphere on both sides of the fault plane and the maturity of the fault system (i.e. the amount of accommodated strike-slip motion), the deformation can be distributed over a large fault system composed of several strands, or localized along a narrow, single strand fault system. Both strike-slip and transform faults display a large variety of structures along-strike, especially at restraining and releasing bends in areas where the principal displacement zone is discontinuous or curved.
How deformation is distributed along strike-slip boundaries from their inception to their mature stage has been the focus of numerous works in the last decades. The increasing amount of datasets collected along strike-slip faults worldwide better documents the mode of structural evolution of strike-slip fault systems in various geodynamic contexts, involving various rheological settings of the lithosphere. Moreover, the increasing performance of computing sciences nowadays allows the 3D numerical modelling of strike-slip and transform faults.
We welcome observational studies on strike-slip and transform faults (structural geology/field tectonics, marine geophysics, imaging of the lithosphere, seismology) as well as modelling studies, both analogue and numerical. Cross disciplinary approaches are encouraged. The submission of abstracts divulging ongoing international projects (drilling sites, seismic reflection imaging along strike slip faults) are also welcome.