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Geophysics and Seismology

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Theses/Dissertations

2016

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Spatial Scaling Of Crustal And Lithospheric Deformation In The Western United States, Cody W. Bomberger Jan 2016

Spatial Scaling Of Crustal And Lithospheric Deformation In The Western United States, Cody W. Bomberger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Deformation of continental lithosphere can extend great distances laterally from tectonic plate boundaries. This extent has been used to argue for a variety of constitutive laws for continental materials, based on the underlying principles in continuum mechanics that identify a relationship between characteristic spatial scale and material properties. Although the relationship between observed deformation and material models is always non-unique, quantifying one or more characteristic scales of deformation in a region can rule out some models of how the lithosphere deforms. In the western United States active deformation occurs at the plate boundary between North America and either the Pacific …


Kinematic Constraints On Tectonics Of The Northern Basin And Range, Dylan Schmeelk Jan 2016

Kinematic Constraints On Tectonics Of The Northern Basin And Range, Dylan Schmeelk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We derive surface velocities relative to North America, using data from 1989 through 2014 in the interior northwest, to investigate kinematics from the Snake River Plain (SRP) to the Canadian border. The Centennial Tectonic Belt (CTB) exhibits similarities to the main Basin and Range Province (BRP) that suggest the CTB is an extension of the BRP, including range and fault orientation, increasing velocity magnitudes westward, and a distinct high rate of strain across the Madison Range. Calculations of fault spreading rates and orientations from geodetic data show that several faults are more active than previously assumed when compared to seismic …