Many questions in active tectonics involve the extent to which motions in the crust and underlying mantle are coupled. Resolving these issues require quantitative information about crustal rheology obtained from observations over a broad range of length and time scales. However most quantitative data collected on laboratory scales are not well correlated to deformation on scales that characterize the earthquake cycle, fault initiation and regional tectonics. This project will model the intermediate to large-scale deformation of the lithosphere in oblique convergent settings, incorporating various failure and flow criteria, and compare model results to actual systems and to laboratory measurements. The ultimate goal of this study is to provide constraints on the average crustal properties that control continental deformation.
