Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Paleoseismic Study Of The Stewart Valley And Northern Pahrump Segments Of The Stateline Fault System, Nevada, Jonathan Carter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Stateline fault system (SFS) is a ~200 km long zone of dextral faults running NW along the NV/CA border from Primm, Nevada to Amargosa Valley in the western Central Basin and Range province (CBR). Because of size and proximity, the SFS poses a hazard to the 2.5 million people, most of who live within 10 km, in Pahrump, Nevada and within 40 km, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The goals of this thesis are to (1) understand if the SFS is accommodating faulting slip change in the CBR; (2) test the along strike continuity of the SFS in Pahrump and …

Determining The Motion And Location Of The Frenchman Mountain Fault, Las Vegas, Nevada: A Paired Basin Analysis And Structural Analysis, Laura Margaret Eaton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Understanding the evolution of large-scale fault systems remains a challenge to geologists and is of critical importance in understanding the dynamics of larger plate tectonic interactions. I mapped the southwestern Frenchman Mountain Fault (FMF), conducted a basin analysis of units in the footwall of the fault, and measured kinematic indicators along the fault zone in order to constrain fault offset, magnitude, and timing in an attempt to further our understanding of these systems.

My findings include: 1) the presence of vertical and sub-vertical slickenlines on southwest dipping fault surfaces indicative of normal sense offset; 2) relatively little lateral variation in …

The Fluvial Muddy Creek Formation Near Overton, Nevada, Carl Taylor Swenberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Muddy Creek Formation (MCF) may represent an ancestral Colorado River deposit. To test this hypothesis, I mapped exposures of the MCF within the Virgin River Depression (VRD), a rift basin in the central Basin and Range. This is the first study to analyze fluvial MCF facies and test their viability as ancestral Colorado River deposits.

Mapping, paleocurrent analysis, conglomerate provenance, and architectural elements analysis were used in order to characterize the fluvial MCF near Overton NV. Architectural elements analysis revealed that MCF fluvial facies are most closely associated with those of a high-energy sand-bed braided river system. These results …