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Structural Evolution And Regional Implications Of The Arrowhead Mine Fault Within The Pahranagat Shear Zone, Nevada, Usa, Michael Dennis Evans

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Basin and Range province is characterized by normal faults associated with

extension, but the occurrence of strike-slip faults and the seismic hazard accompanying

them is less understood. One major strike-slip zone, the Pahranagat shear zone (PSZ),

lies in Lincoln County, Nevada and within the boundary zone between northern Basin

and Range (NBR) and central Basin and Range (CBR) sub-provinces. The PSZ is a 20-

25 km long zone of Cenozoic left-lateral faults. The Arrowhead Mine Fault (AMF) is one

of the three major faults in the PSZ. The western AMF and the faults that surround and

abut it are …

Structural Deformation Across The Southwest Mina Deflection, California-Nevada: Field Studies In The Huntoon Spring Quadrangle, Eliya R. Hogan

All Master's Theses

New geologic data provides insight into Pliocene strain rates across the southwest Mina deflection. ⁴⁰ Ar/³⁹ Ar geochronology of geologic units indicate cooling of Miocene ignimbrite at 11.86 ± 0.01 Ma, Pliocene basalt lavas at 3.7241 ± 0.0051 and 3.5262 ± 0.0172 Ma, and basaltic andesite and andesite lavas at 3.4715 ± 0.0107 Ma and 3.1078 ± 0.0088 Ma. Pliocene cinder cones and Quaternary sediments are also exposed in the Huntoon Spring quadrangle. Volcanic units are cut by a dominant set of NNE-, NE-, and ENE- striking sinistral faults and a lesser set of NNW- and NW- striking normal …

Controls On Fault Geometry During Early Stages Of Extension In The Larkspur Hills, Northwest Basin And Range, Diana Jean Strickley

All Master's Theses

Detailed analyses of normal faults in the Larkspur Hills, CA-NV, northwest Basin and Range, offer insight into factors controlling normal fault initiation, growth, and distribution. N-trending faults in the southern portion of the study area share trends of major range-bounding structures and Pliocene linear volcanic vents; in contrast, NNW- and NNE- trending faults dominate further north and into south-central Oregon. Stress analyses and comparison with experimental and field data suggest that preexisting structures control faults in the northern Larkspur Hills, while faults form perpendicular to σ3 in the southern hills. The change in fault orientations is abrupt, occurring across a …

Holocene Earthquakes And Late Pleistocene Slip-Rate Estimates On The Wassuk Range Fault Zone, Nevada, J. M. Bormann, Benjamin E. Surpless, M. W. Caffee, S. G. Wesnousky

Earth and Environmental Geosciences Faculty Research

The Wassuk Range fault zone is an 80‐km‐long, east‐dipping, high‐angle normal fault that flanks the eastern margin of the Wassuk Range in central Nevada. Observations from two alluvial fan systems truncated by the fault yield information on the vertical slip rate and Holocene earthquake history along the range front. At the apex of the Rose Creek alluvial fan, radiocarbon dating of offset stratigraphy exposed in two fault trenches shows that multiple earthquakes resulted in 7.0 m of vertical offset along the fault since ∼9400 cal B.P. These data yield a Holocene vertical slip rate of 0.7±0.1  mm/yr. The south trench …

Paleomagnetic Data Bearing On The Evolution Of The Walker Lane Belt Transfer Zone From Mid-Miocene To Present : An Investigation Of The Inferred Southern And Eastern Boundaries, Jack Grow

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Walker Lane Belt (WLB) transfer zone, which initiated in the mid-Miocene, presently links the Eastern California Shear Zone in the south to the Central Nevada Seismic Belt and northern WLB to the northeast and north, respectively. The boundaries of the transfer system are clear on the northern and western margins but the extent of the system to the south and east is only inferred. The extent of deformation and development of the WLB transfer zone since the mid-Miocene was examined through a paleomagnetic study of rocks collected at 135 sites, including Neogene volcanic rocks and ashflow tuffs near the …

The Silver Spring And Blackrock Faults, East-Central Nevada: Kinematics, Timing, And Role Of Low-Angle Normal Faulting In The Development Of Railroad Valley, Tyler R Knudsen

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The structural development of Railroad Valley, a large and economically important Tertiary basin in east-central Nevada, has been the focus of much debate. This study addresses many of the points of controversy through a detailed geologic study of structures in the southwestern White Pine Range; Detailed geologic mapping and construction of cross-sections reveal both low- and high-angle normal faults. The low-angle faults consist of three bedding-parallel faults, two top-to-the-southwest and one top-to-the-south, and two large displacement (>8 km heave) (26,000 ft) top-to-the-west detachments that denude a range-scale Mesozoic fold. Two spatially distinct groups of high-angle normal faults are present: …

Pottery And Mobility: A Functional Analysis Of Intermountain Brownware, Britt J Betenson

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Intermountain Brownware, is a late prehistoric ceramic type made by mobile hunter-gatherers that is found throughout southern Nevada, western Utah and northern Arizona. Most hunter-gather groups around the world are not pottery producers. Through interdisciplinary analysis, I examine the physical and morphological characteristics to understand the amount of labor invested in the construction and production of Intermountain Brownware. I then evaluate these results amongst environmental, historical, ethnological, and archaeological data to conclude that Intermountain Brownware possesses lower porosity, and is thinner and stronger than commonly reported. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is performed to empirically characterize food residues remaining in the …

An Economic Analysis Of The Arsenic Standard On Nevada, Jill S. Dale

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2001, the arsenic standard for drinking water was lowered from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. The clean-up costs for Nevada are estimated at approximately 400 million dollars. The purpose of this project is to examine the economic impacts the State of Nevada will absorb as a result of the new regulation. Research of historical data will be the basis for the project. National data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and data collected from the State of Nevada will be accompanied by comparable research data found through other sources

Refined Kinematics Of The Eastern California Shear Zone From Gps Observations, 1993-1998, M. Meghan Miller, Timothy H. Dixon, Roy K. Dokka

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Global Positioning System (GPS) results from networks spanning the Eastern California shear zone and adjacent Sierra Nevada block, occupied annually between 1993 and 1998, constrain plate margin kinematics. We use an elastic block model to relate GPS station velocities to long‐term fault slip rate estimates. The model accounts for elastic strain accumulation on the San Andreas fault, as well as faults of the Eastern California shear zone. South of the Garlock fault, 14 mm/yr of dextral shear is distributed across the Eastern California shear zone. Some of this slip penetrates eastward into the Basin and Range, and a collective budget …

Stratigraphy And Depositional Environments Of Lower And Middle Cambrian Strata In The Lake Mead Region, Southern Nevada And Northwestern Arizona, Joseph Kirk Hardy

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The stratigraphy and depositional systems revealed within the Lower to Middle Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone-Pioche Shale-Lyndon Limestone-Chisholm Shale succession were studied between the easternmost limit of Cretaceous overthrusting in southern Nevada and the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in northwestern Arizona. Nine intergradational lithofacies were distinguished based on a rich suite of sedimentary structures, including lenticular-, wavy-, and flaser-bedding, wrinkle marks, herringbone cross-stratification, convolute bedding, primary current lineations, interference ripple marks, bird's eye structures, thrombolites, intraformational conglomerates, oncoids, cryptalgal laminites, and Arenicoloides, Corophioides, and Skolithos ichnofossils. The collective presence of these structures indicates that Lower and Middle Cambrian rocks in …

The Study Of Yucca Mountain For A Possible Nuclear Storage Facility Science Vs. Politics, Anna Leske

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether scientific or political methods were used by the of the United States Congress in the study of the nuclear waste storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The history nuclear power and the history of the Johnston compromise that lead to the elimination of Texas and Washington States as possible sites for the repository is explained. A review of the conflicts between Nevada politicians and the U.S. Congress over the designation of Yucca Mountain as the sole study for a permanent storage site of the nation's high-level nuclear waste is addressed along …

The Distribution Of Vertical Groundwater Flow In The Saturated Zone Of The Yucca Mountain Area: A Cross-Sectional Finite Element Model, Sandra Jean Haws

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study uses cross-sectional modeling to explore the saturated groundwater flow at Yucca Mountain in a multi-layer system. Cross-sectional modeling allows the simulation of vertical leakage not included in areal models. The cross section was constructed along an estimated streamline and is 84.3 kilometers long. The conceptual model includes an upper volcanic and lower carbonate aquifer separated by an aquitard with an alluvial aquifer down-gradient. Results indicate that some groundwater flows beneath the high-gradient (low conductivity) zone through the carbonate aquifer. The volcanic aquifer, south of the high gradient zone, must be supplied with additional groundwater as the low conductivity …