This work provides new constraints on the development and on the distribution of the deformation in the upper mantle and particularly beneath transform plate boundaries. USArray experiment and the remarkable increase of the dataset in California for the past ten years allowed us to scrutinize the lateral variations of the anisotropy in the vicinity of the San Andreas Fault zone. We have confirmed and increased the detection of two layers of anisotropy beneath this plate boundary. The first layer, located in the lithosphere, is related to the deformation induced at the fault, and the other one, located in the asthenosphere, is coherent with the anisotropy observed far from it, its origin is however less clear. We show that the deformation zone associated both to the San Andreas, Calaveras and Hayward Faults, is likely 40 km wide at 70 km depth. We then performed numerical thermomechanical modeling (ADELI) of the displacement of a transform plate boundary associated with the computation of the development of crystallographic fabrics using a viscoplastic selfconsistent approach (VPSC). We analyzed the distribution of the deformation in the model ant looked after the possible interactions at depth between deformation caused at surface by the strike-slip dynamic of the fault and the shearing at the base of the lithosphere caused by the horizontal displacement of the plates. Elastic properties derived from the crystallographic fabrics modeled, show that such interactions exist and induce, beneath the fault zone, a progressive rotation of the crystallographic fabrics with depth. Seismological signature of these smooth rotations is however not relevant with the presence of two anisotropic layers as proposed beneath California. We thus consider that a decoupling zone exists between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere beneath the California to account for the sharp separation between a lithospheric and an asthenospheric deformation. We furthermore estimate that anisotropy observed far form the San Andreas Fault in California cannot be explained only by the drag of the asthenosphere by the North America lithosphere as proposed in our article. Indeed, we can only expect few tenths of second of splitting delay from the anisotropic properties derived from the numerical modeling of a plate moving in the same direction and in the same velocity than the North American lithosphere only for 10 Ma of displacement. As delays observed in California rather reach 1.5 s, anisotropy in this region thus requires the existence of an active asthenospheric flow to be explained.
