When plate boundaries misalign. Distributing deformation at the terminations of continental transform faults

Continental transform faults develop where one tectonic plate slides past another and their role is to link plate motion between other plate boundaries. In some instances, the transform fault does not link directly to its connecting plate boundary. Where this occurs, there is no plate boundary to accommodate plate motion. This thesis investigates how plate motion is transferred across such regions by recreating plate boundary conditions in scaled laboratory experiments. Results show that a network of faults develop over these regions in a consistent pattern to accommodate plate motion, which has implications for better understanding earthquake initiation within these regions.