Tectonics and Structure Commons^™

Pliocene Sinistral Slip Across The Adobe Hills, Eastern California-Western Nevada: Kinematics Of Fault Slip Transfer Across The Mina Deflection, Sarah Nagorsen-Rinke, Jeffrey Lee, Andrew Calvert

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The Adobe Hills region (California and Nevada, USA) is a faulted volcanic field located within the western Mina deflection, a right-stepping zone of faults that connects the northern Eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) to the south with the Walker Lane belt (WLB) to the north. New detailed geologic mapping, structural studies, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology in the Adobe Hills allow us to calculate fault slip rates and test predictions for the kinematics of fault slip transfer into the Mina deflection. The Adobe Hills are dominated by Pliocene tuffaceous sandstone, basaltic lavas that yield ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages …

Effectiveness Of Four Water-Bearing Zones Of The Glacierized Basin In Meltwater Runoff Modeling, Umesh K. Haritashya

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Meltwater runoff modeling from glacierized basins needs several input data, including total meltwater contributing area. This study utilizes optical remote sensing data to assess glacierized basins in the central Himalayas where snow and glaciers contribute substantially to the water resources. Result shows that there are four main water-bearing zones in the basin: (a) dry snow, (b) wet snow, (c) exposed glacial ice, and (d) debris-covered glacial ice, and it is possible to differentiate and map these zones and their spatio-temporal variations from satellite sensor data. These zones can then be incorporated in meltwater runoff modeling as separate entities because they …

Collisional Reactivation Of Rift Margin Fracture Zones, Taiwan And The Taconic Allochthon, David C. Mirakian

Master's Theses

Chapter I. Transverse Topographic Development due to the Reactivation of a Partially-Subducted Fracture Zone: The Southwest Hsüehshan Range, Central Taiwan

Abstract — The southwest flank of the Hsüehshan Range is defined by a topographic break which cuts across regionally mapped structures in central Taiwan. The mountain front trends ~345°, slightly oblique to the Sanyi-Puli seismic zone which has been previously interpreted as a reactivated continental margin fracture zone. Structural data collected along the length of the topographic break reveal two populations of cross-cutting faults with distinct fault-zone materials and a series of southwest-plunging folds. Paleostress axes were reconstructed using the …

Understanding Uplift Of The Ethiopian Plateau From Longitudinal Profile Analysis Of The Blue Nile Drainage System, Prabhat Chandra Neupane

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Ethiopian Plateau is one of the few tectonically-active regions on Earth that is situated in continental rift zones. About 1.6 km deep gorge of the Nile was carved by the Blue Nile River on the Ethiopian Plateau, as the plateau has been experiencing continuous uplift and exhumation in the Cenozoic. Here, we used quantitative analysis of longitudinal rive-profile forms and parameters (knickpoint and normalized steepness-index k_sn) of the Blue Nile tributaries to tease out regional tectonic signals.

244 knickpoints were examined in the tributaries, majority (>80%) of which are unassociated with lithology or geological structures. Knickpoint …

Aerial Reconnaissance Of Stream Terraces And Landslides Within Bitterwater Creek Watershed In Kern County, California, Zachary Smith

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Mesozoic Burial, Mesozoic And Cenozoic Exhumation Of The Funeral Mountains Core Complex, Death Valley, Southeastern California, Mengesha Assefa Beyene

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Funeral Mountains of Death Valley National Park, CA, provide an opportunity to date metamorphism resulting from crustal shortening and subsequent episodic extensional events in the Sevier hinterland. It was not clear whether crustal shortening and thus peak temperature metamorphism in the hinterland of the Sevier-Laramide orogenic wedge have occurred whether in Late Jurassic, Early Cretaceous , Late Cretaceous or somewhere between. Particularly ambiguous is the timing of crustal shortening in the deep levels of the hinterland of the Sevier belt, now manifest in the metamorphic core complexes, and how and when these middle-to-lower crustal rocks were exhumed. A 6-point …

In-Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction Study Of Quartz Deformation Using The D-Dia Apparatus, May Sas, Dawn Pape, Brian Erickson, Sylvia-Monique Thomas, Pamela Burnley

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Deformation is a rock’s mechanical response to external parameters such as temperature and pressure. Knowledge of deformation is necessary to understand geodynamic processes. The behavior of rocks and minerals during deformation depends on the behavior of individual grains within those minerals as they interact. The mineral we are studying is quartz, which we chose since it is very well studied and is highly abundant. We use high-pressure high temperature experiments to simulate conditions of Earth’s interior and the D-DIA apparatus combined with synchrotron x-ray diffraction allows us to record data directly during the process of deformation. The data we collect …

Middle To Late Miocene Extremely Rapid Exhumation And Thermal Reequilibration In The Kung Co Rift, Southern Tibet, Jeffrey Lee, Christian Hager, Simon R. Wallis, Daniel F. Stockli, Martin J. Whitehouse, Mutsuki Aoya, Yu Wang

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

The Kung Co rift is an approximately NNW striking, WSW dipping normal fault exposed in southern Tibet and is part of an extensive network of active approximately NS striking normal faults exposed across the Tibetan Plateau. Detailed new and published (U-Th)/He zircon and apatite thermochronometric data from the footwall of the early Miocene Kung Co granite provide constraints on the middle Miocene to present-day exhumation history of the footwall to the Kung Co fault. Inverse modeling of thermochronometric data yield age patterns that are interpreted as indicating (1) initiation of normal fault slip at ∼12–13 Ma and rapid exhumation of …

Evidence Of Tectonic Uplift Along The Oceanic Fault Near San Simeon, San Luis Obispo County, California, George Gecy

Earth and Soil Sciences

Post-Seismic satellite imagery after the 2003 earthquake near San Simeon confirmed 10s of millimeters of north-east side uplift along the Oceanic Fault. In order to determine whether or not there has been a history of tectonic uplift northeast of the Oceanic Fault zone, longitudinal profiles of Morro Creek and San Simeon were made using a digital planimeter and 1:24,000 scale maps. Utilizing the stream profiles, convexities could be observed in the streams coinciding where the streams crossed the Oceanic Fault; of the stream profiles, the convexity along San Simeon Creek could be confirmed to be caused by north-east side uplift …

Encyclopedia Of Snow, Ice And Glaciers, Vijay P. Singh, Pratap Singh, Umesh K. Haritashya

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The objective of this encyclopedia is to present the current state of scientific understanding of various aspects of earth’s cryosphere – snow, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, river and lake ice, and permafrost – and their related interdisciplinary connections under one umbrella. Therefore, every effort has been made to provide a comprehensive coverage of cryosphere by including a broad array of topics, such as the atmospheric processes responsible for snow formation; snowfall observations; snow cover and snow surveys; transformation of snow to ice and changes in their properties; classification of ice and glaciers and their worldwide …

Timing, Distribution, Amount, And Style Of Cenozoic Extension In The Northern Great Basin, Christopher D. Henry, Allen J. Mcgrew, Joseph P. Colgan, Arthur W. Snoke, Matthew E. Brueseke

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

This field trip examines contrasting lines of evidence bearing on the timing and structural style of Cenozoic (and perhaps late Mesozoic) extensional deformation in northeastern Nevada. Studies of metamorphic core complexes in this region report extension beginning in the early Cenozoic or even Late Cretaceous, peaking in the Eocene and Oligocene, and being largely over before the onset of “modern” Basin and Range extension in the middle Miocene. In contrast, studies based on low- temperature thermochronology and geologic mapping of Eocene and Miocene volcanic and sedimentary deposits report only minor, localized extension in the Eocene, no extension at all in …

Surface Wave Inversion Of The Upper Mantle Velocity Structure In The Ross Sea Region, Western Antarctica, James D. Rinke

All Master's Theses

The Ross Sea in Western Antarctica is the locale of several extensional basins formed during Cretaceous to Paleogene rifting. Several seismic studies along the Transantarctic Mountains and Victoria Land Basin’s Terror Rift have shown a general pattern of fast seismic velocities in East Antarctica and slow seismic velocities in West Antarctica. This study focuses on the mantle seismic velocity structure of the West Antarctic Rift System in the Ross Embayment and adjacent craton and Transantarctic Mountains to further refine details of the velocity structure.

Teleseismic events were selected to satisfy the two-station great-circle-path method between 5 Polar Earth Observing Network …

Kinematics And Vorticity In Kangmar Dome, Southern Tibet: Testing Midcrustal Channel-Flow Models For The Himalaya, Tom Wagner, Jeffrey Lee, Bradley R. Hacker, Gareth Seward

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Kinematic, kinematic vorticity (W_m), and deformation temperature analyses were completed to test the hypothesis that midcrustal rocks exposed in the core of the Kangmar gneiss dome, southern Tibet record ductile deformation patterns of a “frozen” segment of a southward flowing midcrustal channel. Microscopic and mesoscopic kinematic indicators exhibit a downward transition from a subequal mix of top-north and top-south shear in garnet zone rocks to dominantly top-north shear in staurolite/kyanite zone and deeper rocks. Kinematic vorticity values indicate an increase in pure shear component with depth from ∼48% pure shear in chloritoid zone rocks through ∼62% in …

A Study Of Fold Characteristics And Deformation Style Using The Evolution Of The Land Surface: Zagros Simply Folded Belt, Iran, Caroline M. Burberry, John W. Cosgrove, Jian-Guo Liu

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Deformation styles within a fold-thrust belt can be understood in terms of the spatial organization and geometry of the fold structures. In young fold-thrust belts such as the Zagros, this geometry is reflected topographically by concordant landform morphology. Thus, the distribution of deformation structures can be characterized using satellite image analysis, digital elevation models, the drainage network and geomorphological indicators. The two distinct fold types considered in this study (fault-bend folds and detachment folds) both trending NW-SE, interact with streams flowing NE-SW from the High Zagros Mountains into the Persian Gulf. Multiple abandoned stream channels cross fault-bend folds related to …

Understanding Paleoclimate And Human Evolution Through The Hominin Sites And Paleolakes Drilling Project, Andrew Cohen, Ramon Arrowsmith, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Christopher Campisano, Craig Feibel, Shimeles Fisseha, Roy Johnson, Zelalem Bedaso, Charles Lockwood, Emma Mbua, Daniel Olago, Richard Potts, Kaye Reed, Robin Renaut, Jean-Jacques Tiercelin, Mohammed Umer

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Understanding the evolution of humans and our close relatives is one of the enduring scientific issues of modern times. Since the time of Charles Darwin, scientists have speculated on how and when we evolved and what conditions drove this evolutionary story. The detective work required to address these questions is necessarily interdisciplinary, involving research in anthropology, archaeology, human genetics and genomics, and the earth sciences. In addition to the difficult tasks of finding, describing, and interpreting hominin fossils (the taxonomic tribe which includes Homo sapiens and our close fossil relatives from the last 6 Ma), much of modern geological research …

Exhumation Of The Inyo Mountains, California: Implications For The Timing Of Extension Along The Western Boundary Of The Basin And Range Province And Distribution Of Dextral Fault Slip Rates Across The Eastern California Shear Zone, Jeffrey Lee, Daniel F. Stockli, Lewis A. Owen, Robert C. Finkel, Roman Kislitsyn

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

New geologic mapping, tectonic geomorphologic, ¹⁰Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide, and (U-Th)/He zircon and apatite thermochronometric data provide the first numerical constraints on late Cretaceous to late Quaternary exhumation of the Inyo Mountains and vertical slip and horizontal extension rates across the eastern Inyo fault zone, California. The east-dipping eastern Inyo fault zone bounds the eastern flank of the Inyo Mountains, a prominent geomorphic feature within the western Basin and Range Province and eastern California shear zone. (U-Th)/He zircon and apatite thermochronometry yield age patterns across the range that are interpreted as indicating: (1) two episodes of moderate to rapid …

Geomorphology Of The Southernmost Longitudinal Valley Fault: Implications For Evolution Of The Active Suture Of Eastern Taiwan, J. Bruce H. Shyu, Kerry Sieh, Yue-Gau Chen, Ray Y. Chuang, Yu Wang, Ling-Ho Chung

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

In order to understand fully the deformational patterns of the Longitudinal Valley fault system, a major structure along the eastern suture of Taiwan, we mapped geomorphic features near the southern end of the Longitudinal Valley, where many well‐developed fluvial landforms record deformation along multiple strands of the fault. Our analysis shows that the Longitudinal Valley fault there comprises two major strands. The Luyeh strand, on the west, has predominantly reverse motion. The Peinan strand, on the east, has a significant left‐lateral component. Between the two strands, late Quaternary fluvial sediments and surfaces exhibit progressive deformation. The Luyeh strand dies out …

The Global Stratotype Section And Point (Gssp) For The Base Of The Katian Stage Of The Upper Ordovician Series At Black Knob Ridge, Southeastern Oklahoma, Usa, Daniel Goldman, Stephen A. Leslie, Jaak Nõlvak, Seth Young, Stig M. Bergström, Warren D. Huff

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The International Subcomission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (ISOS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) recently defined the base of the global Upper Ordovician Series to be at the first appearance datum (FAD) of the graptolite species Nemagraptus gracilis in the Fågelsång GSSP in southern Sweden. This designation recognized the tremendous utility for global correlation of the first appearance of a cosmopolitan taxon that occurs within a consistent succession of other first appearance datums (e.g., Finney and Bergström, 1986; Bergström et al., 2000). Current efforts by the ISOS have focused on subdividing the Upper Ordovician into three stages and choosing appropriate …

Episodic Tremor And Slip In The Pacific Northwest, Kenneth C. Creager, Timothy I. Melbourne

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Every 14 months the Pacific Northwest experiences slow slip on a fault that is the equivalent of about a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. While a typical earthquake of this magnitude happens in less than 10 seconds, the duration of these slip events is two to several weeks. The most recent event occurred from January 14 through February 1, 2007.

Evidence For Prehistoric Coseismic Folding Along The Tsaotun Segment Of The Chelungpu Fault Near Nan-Tou, Taiwan, Ashley R. Streig, Charles M. Rubin, Wen-Shan Chen, Long-Shen Lee, Stephen C. Thompson, Chris Madden, Shih-Ting Lu

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Taiwan's 1999 M_w 7.6 earthquake generated over 85 km surface rupture along the Chelungpu thrust fault. Paleoseismic studies at the Shi‐Jia site near Nantou city, reveal folding as the predominant form of deformation. Stratigraphic relations across the 1999 fold scarp show the style and degree of deformation caused by the penultimate event is similar to observed 1999 deformation. A boring transect across the fold scarp provides additional evidence of an earlier earthquake. Investigations at the Shi‐Jia site revealed three prehistoric events; accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon ages indicate that the penultimate earthquake occurred between 1160 and 1440 A.D. Paleoseismic …

Late Cretaceous To Paleocene Metamorphism And Magmatism In The Funeral Mountains Metamorphic Core Complex, Death Valley, California, Chris G. Mattinson, Joseph P. Colgan, James R. Metcalf, Elizabeth L. Miller, Joseph L. Wooden

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Amphibolite-facies Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks below the low-angle Cenozoic Boundary Canyon Detachment record deep crustal processes related to Mesozoic crustal thickening and subsequent extension. A 91.5 ± 1.4 Ma Th-Pb SHRIMP-RG (sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe–reverse geometry) monazite age from garnet-kyanite-staurolite schist constrains the age of prograde metamorphism in the lower plate. Between the Boundary Canyon Detachment and the structurally deeper, subparallel Monarch Spring fault, prograde metamorphic fabrics are overprinted by a pervasive greenschist-facies retrogression, high-strain subhorizontal mylonitic foliation, and a prominent WNW-ESE stretching lineation parallel to corrugations on the Boundary Canyon Detachment. Granitic pegmatite dikes are deformed, rotated into parallelism, and …

Late Holocene Uplift Of The Chihshang Segment Of The Longitudinal Valley Fault At Fuli, Eastern Taiwan, Brian Thomas Gray

All Master's Theses

Uplifted Holocene strath terraces of the Bieh River drainage, eastern Taiwan, were analyzed in order to determine millennial-scale uplift and horizontal shortening rates of the Longitudinal Valley fault. Detrital charcoal fragments collected from three terraces within the Bieh River drainage yield ages between 1395 and 555 cal. yr B.P, suggesting an average uplift rate of 11.3 ± 3.6 mm yr^-1 for the last 1400 cal. yr B.P. The average horizontal shortening rate of 19.7 ± 9.5 mm yr^-1 was within error of present-day conventional geodetic measurements, but near the lower limit of the geodetic measurements. This suggests that …

Mapping Of A Detachment Fault In Kythera Island And Study Of The Related Structural Shear Sense Indicators, Antonios Marsellos

Geology Theses and Dissertations

Kythera Island is located on the prominent submarine horst between Crete and the Peloponnese in the southwestern part of the Aegean. The structure of Kythera is characterized by a pile of tectonic slices derived from different paleogeographic zones. The upper unmetamorphosed units comprise pelagic limestones and cherts of Pindos zone emplaced by thrusting in the Eocene on top of Tripolis zone neritic limestones. These units are separated from the lower metamorphosed unit of Phyllite-Quartzite (PQU) exposed in the northern part of Kythera by an extensional detachment fault of Late Miocene age. The lower tectonic unit of PQU was affected by …

Prevailing Weather Conditions During Summer Seasons Around Gangotri Glacier, Pratap Singh, Umesh K. Haritashya, K. S. Ramasastri, Naresh Kumar

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Meteorological data collected near the snout of the Gangotri Glacier suggest that the study area receives less rainfall. The average seasonal rainfall is observed to be about 260 mm. The rainfall distribution does not show any monsoon impact. Amount of seasonal rainfall is highly variable (131.4-368.8 mm) from year to year, but, in general, August had the maximum rainfall. A verage daily maximum and minimum temperatures were 14.7 and 4.1°C respectively, whereas average mean temperature was 9.4°C. July was recorded as the warmest month. During daytime, wind speed was four times higher than that at night-time. The average daytime and …

Transient Detection And Modeling Of Continuous Geodetic Data, Walter Michael Szeliga

All Master's Theses

Transient surface deformation has been observed by continuously operating Global Positioning System stations in the Puget Sound area during the past decade. This surface deformation is associated with processes occurring on or near the subducting plate boundary between the Juan de Fuca and North American plates. This thesis is composed of two studies of transient deformation along the Cascadia plate margin and a discussion of the methodologies employed in these studies. We model one 7-week episode of transient deformation that occurred during 2003 beneath the Puget Sound area. Additionally, we utilize a combination of continuous Global Positioning System and seismic …

Southern Cascadia Episodic Slow Earthquakes, Walter Szeliga, Timothy I. Melbourne, M. Meghan Miller, V. Marcelo Santillan

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Continuous GPS and seismic data from northern California show that slow earthquakes periodically rupture the Gorda‐North America plate interface within southern Cascadia. On average, these creep events have occurred every 10.9 ± 1.2 months since at least 1998. Appearing as week‐long GPS extensional transients that reverse secular forearc contraction, the data show a recurrence interval 22% shorter than slow events recognized to the north. Seismic tremor here accompanies the GPS reversals, correlated across as many as 5 northern California seismometers. Tremor occurs sporadically throughout the year, but increases in duration and intensity by a factor of about 10 simultaneous with …

Quantitative Analysis Of Movement Along An Earthquake Thrust Scarp: A Case Study Of A Vertical Exposure Of The 1999 Surface Rupture Of The Chelungpu Fault At Wufeng, Western Taiwan, Jian-Cheng Lee, Charles Rubin, Karl Mueller, Yue-Gau Chen, Yu-Chang Chan, Kerry Sieh, Hao-Tsu Chu, Wen-Shan Chen

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A vertical exposure across the principal thrust scarp of the 1999 Mw 7.6 earthquake allows quantification of fault slip. The exposure is located on the active Chelungpu fault near Wufeng, along the range front of the fold-and-thrust belt in western Taiwan. The 1999 surface ruptures at the Wufeng site are characterized by a west-facing 2 to 3 m high principal thrust scarp and an east-facing lesser backthrust scarp. We mapped a 15 m-long, 5 m-deep exposure across the principal thrust scarp and characterized complex deformation structures, which include a main basal thrust fault, a wedge thrust, and a pop-up anticlinal …

Geologic Context Of Geodetic Data Across A Basin And Range Normal Fault, Crescent Valley, Nevada, A. M. Friedrich, Jeffrey Lee, B. P. Wernicke, K. Sieh

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Geodetic strain and late Quaternary faulting in the Basin and Range province is distributed over a region much wider than historic seismicity, which is localized near the margins of the province. In the relatively aseismic interior, both the magnitude and direction of geodetic strain may be inconsistent with the Holocene faulting record. We document the best example of such a disagreement across the NE striking, ∼55° NW dipping Crescent normal fault, where a NW oriented, 70 km geodetic baseline records contemporary shortening of ∼2 mm/yr orthogonal to the fault trace. In contrast, our geomorphic, paleoseismic, and geochronologic analyses of the …

Error Analysis Of Continuous Gps Position Time Series, Simon D. P. Williams, Yehuda Bock, Peng Fang, Paul Jamason, Rosanne M. Nikolaidis, Linette Prawirodirdjo, Meghan Miller, Daniel J. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A total of 954 continuous GPS position time series from 414 individual sites in nine different GPS solutions were analyzed for noise content using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). The lengths of the series varied from around 16 months to over 10 years. MLE was used to analyze the data in two ways. In the first analysis the noise was assumed to be white noise only, a combination of white noise plus flicker noise, or a combination of white noise plus random walk noise. For the second analysis the spectral index and amplitude of the power law noise were estimated simultaneously …

Detection Of Arbitrarily Large Dynamic Ground Motions With A Dense High-Rate Gps Network, Yehuda Bock, Linette Prawirodirdjo, Timothy I. Melbourne

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We describe the detection of teleseismic surface waves from the 3 November 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali fault earthquake in Alaska with a dense network of 1 Hz GPS stations in southern California, about 3900 km from the event. Relative horizontal displacements with amplitudes in excess of 15 mm and duration of 700 seconds agree with integrated velocities recorded by nearby broadband seismometers with an rms difference of 2–3 mm. The displacements are derived from independent 1 Hz instantaneous positions demonstrating that a GPS network can provide direct measurements of arbitrarily large dynamic and static ground horizontal displacements at periods longer …