Geomorphology, kinematic history, and earthquake behavior of the active Kuwana wedge thrust anticline, central Japan

We combine surface mapping of fault and fold scarps that deform late Quaternary alluvial strata with interpretation of a high‐resolution seismic reflection profile to develop a kinematic model and determine fault slip rates for an active blind wedge thrust system that underlies Kuwana anticline in central Japan. Surface fold scarps on Kuwana anticline are closely correlated with narrow fold limbs and angular hinges on the seismic profile that suggest at least ∼1.3 km of fault slip completely consumed by folding in the upper 4 km of the crust. The close coincidence and kinematic link between folded terraces and the underlying thrust geometry indicate that Kuwana anticline has accommodated slip at an average rate of 2.2 ± 0.5 mm/yr on a 27°, west dipping thrust fault since early‐middle Pleistocene time. In contrast to classical fault bend folds the fault slip budget in the stacked wedge thrusts also indicates that (1) the fault tip propagated upward at a low rate relative to the accrual of fault slip and (2) fault slip is partly absorbed by numerous bedding plane flexural‐slip faults above the tips of wedge thrusts. An historic earthquake that occurred on the Kuwana blind thrust system possibly in A.D. 1586 is shown to have produced coseismic surface deformation above the doubly vergent wedge tip. Structural analyses of Kuwana anticline coupled with tectonic geomorphology at 103–105 years timescales illustrate the significance of active folds as indicators of slip on underlying blind thrust faults and thus their otherwise inaccessible seismic hazards.