Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Space Geodetic Observation Of The Deformation Cycle Across The Ballenas Transform, Gulf Of California, Christina Plattner, Rocco Malservisi, Falk Amelung, Timothy H. Dixon, Matthias Hackl, Alessandro Verdecchia, Peter Lonsdale, Francisco Suarez-Vidal, Javier Gonzalez-Garcia

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The Gulf of California, Mexico, accommodates ~90% of North America‐Pacific plate relative motion. While most of this motion occurs on marine transform faults and spreading centers, several fault segments in the central Gulf come close to peninsular Baja California. Here we present Global Positioning System and interferometric synthetic aperture radar data near the Ballenas transform fault, separating the peninsula from Angel de la Guarda Island. We observe interseismic motion between June 2004 and May 2009 and displacements associated with the 3 August 2009 Mw 6.9 earthquake. From the interseismic data we estimate a locking depth of 9–12.5 km and a …