TR method (TRM): A separation and stress inversion method for heterogeneous fault-slip data driven by Andersonian extensional and compressional stress regimes

• Separation and stress inversion method for heterogeneous fault-slip data.
• Fault activation with Andersonian stress regimes.
• Introduction of the “Stress Tensor Discriminator Faults”.
• Conditions for separation of heterogeneous fault-slip data with low diversity.
• Understanding of the use of the Misfit Angle criterion on the mixed stress tensors.

The recently proposed TR method (TRM) which uses the slip preference of the faults to separate heterogeneous fault-slip data in extensional and compressional Andersonian stress regimes, is enhanced so as to determine stress tensors with the use of the Wallace–Bott slip criterion. Published natural fault-slip data from the extensional region of Tympaki, Crete, Greece and artificial fault-slip data modeled from the Chelungpu thrust, activated during the 1999 Chi–Chi earthquake in Taiwan, have been used as case studies. In the first case, the fault-slip data previously considered as homogeneous might actually be of heterogeneous origin as they determine two distinct stress tensors that both fit well with the neotectonic faulting deformation of the region. In the second case, where the fault-slip data belonging to three different subsets are of low diversity, the TRM succeeds in defining the driving stress tensors. The Misfit Angle minimization criterion can adequately separate the fault-slip data between two subsets when the percentage of the “Stress Tensor Discriminator Faults” is higher than approximately 70%.