A kinematic model for the evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone and Garlock Fault, Mojave Desert, California

Dixon, Timothy H.; Xie, Surui

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.04.050

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…7). The extrusion of the Mojave block perpendicular to plate motion at a rate of~17 mm/yr is responsible for the peculiar long-term evolution of fault activity in the Mojave desert with increasing cumulative slip from west to east, as faults move past a stable sub-crustal shear zone 73 . The easternmost fault, the Ludlow fault, which simultaneously holds the largest cumulative offset and the smallest Holocene slip-rate, is no longer aligned with the Salton trough shear zone and is currently inactive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mantle flow distribution beneath the California margin

Barbot

2020

Nat Commun

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Although the surface deformation of tectonic plate boundaries is well determined by geological and geodetic measurements, the pattern of flow below the lithosphere remains poorly constrained. We use the crustal velocity field of the Plate Boundary Observatory to illuminate the distribution of horizontal flow beneath the California margin. At lower-crustal and upper-mantle depths, the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates is off-centered from the San Andreas fault, concentrated in a region that encompasses the trace of nearby active faults. A major step is associated with return flow below the Eastern California Shear Zone, leading to the extrusion of the Mojave block and a re-distribution of fault activity since the Pleistocene. Major earthquakes in California have occurred above the regions of current plastic strain accumulation. Deformation is mechanically coupled from the crust to the asthenosphere, with mantle flow overlaid by a kinematically consistent network of faults in the brittle crust.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mantle flow distribution beneath the California margin

Barbot

2020

Nat Commun

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“…1). Some of this westward migration may be apparent and due to eastward motion of the Mojave block and its many brittle strike-slip faults over a fixed, vertical shear zone in the ductile lower crust (Dixon and Xie, 2018), rather than a true westward shift in location of dextral shearing relative to stable North America. However, the concept of westward migration of the ECSZ-be it relative or absolute-implies that faults in the modern ECSZ initiated after faults in the paleo-ECSZ, a prediction that contradicts documented late Miocene activity on faults of the modern ECSZ (Carter et al, 1987;Dokka and Travis, 1990;Nuriel et al, 2019).…”

Section: Research Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2-4 Ma (Du and Aydin, 1996;Rubin and Sieh, 1997). While it is generally agreed that the width of the deformation zone has narrowed and become more localized through time into the western (active) ECSZ belt (Dokka and Travis, 1990;Dixon and Xie, 2018), few constraints exist on the timing, distribution, and structural style of strain in the paleo-ECSZ. Documenting the geologic evolution of the older, eastern belt of the ECSZ is needed to understand how late Miocene dextral strain in the Gulf of California shear zone was kinematically linked with paleo-ECSZ faults in the Mojave Desert east of the San Andreas fault and farther north in the Walker Lane.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Post-4.5 Ma broad sagging is recognized along the lower Colorado River (Howard et al, 2015;Crow et al, 2018;Cohen et al, 2019), including possible isostatic responses to sedimentation and erosion (Karlstrom et al, 2017), but the influence of ECSZ faults on regional subsidence patterns during deposition of the Bouse Formation remains poorly understood. Detailed studies are needed to test kinematic models for the ECSZ and its links to the northern Gulf of California, San Andreas fault system, and Walker Lane (e.g., Dolan et al, 2007;Oskin et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2010;Dixon and Xie, 2018).…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tectonostratigraphic record of late Miocene–early Pliocene transtensional faulting in the Eastern California shear zone, southwestern USA

et al. 2021

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The Eastern California shear zone (ECSZ; southwestern USA) accommodates ~20%–25% of Pacific–North America relative plate motion east of the San Andreas fault, yet little is known about its early tectonic evolution. This paper presents a detailed stratigraphic and structural analysis of the uppermost Miocene to lower Pliocene Bouse Formation in the southern Blythe Basin, lower Colorado River valley, where gently dipping and faulted strata provide a record of deformation in the paleo-ECSZ. In the western Trigo Mountains, splaying strands of the Lost Trigo fault zone include a west-dipping normal fault that cuts the Bouse Formation and a steeply NE-dipping oblique dextral-normal fault where an anomalously thick (~140 m) section of Bouse Formation siliciclastic deposits filled a local fault-controlled depocenter. Systematic basinward thickening and stratal wedge geometries in the western Trigo and southeastern Palo Verde Mountains, on opposite sides of the Colorado River valley, record basinward tilting during deposition of the Bouse Formation. We conclude that the southern Blythe Basin formed as a broad transtensional sag basin in a diffuse releasing stepover between the dextral Laguna fault system in the south and the Cibola and Big Maria fault zones in the north. A palinspastic reconstruction at 5 Ma shows that the southern Blythe Basin was part of a diffuse regional network of linked right-stepping dextral, normal, and oblique-slip faults related to Pacific–North America plate boundary dextral shear. Diffuse transtensional strain linked northward to the Stateline fault system, eastern Garlock fault, and Walker Lane, and southward to the Gulf of California shear zone, which initiated ca. 7–9 Ma, implying a similar age of inception for the paleo-ECSZ.

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“…Wilcox et al ., 1973; Peltzer and Tapponier, 1988). In California and western Nevada, both dip‐slip and lateral motion is accommodated on faults within the San Andreas fault system (Hornafius et al ., 1986; Kelsey and Carver, 1988; Castillo and Ellsworth, 1993), as well as the Walker Lane and Eastern California Shear Zone (Sturmer and Faulds, 2018; Dixon and Xie, 2018; Faulds and Henry, 2008; Wesnousky, 2005a; 2005b; Trexler et al ., 2000; Richard 1993; Schermer et al ., 1996). These studies highlight activity on variably oriented faults within regions of right‐lateral shear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early development of strike‐slip faulting: palaeoseismic study along the Petersen Mountain fault, northern Walker Lane, Nevada

Masi

Koehler

Dee

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

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Characterising youthful strike‐slip fault systems within transtensional regimes is often complicated by the presence of tectonic geomorphic features produced by normal faulting associated with oblique extension. The Petersen Mountain fault in the northern Walker Lane tectonic province exhibits evidence of both normal and strike‐slip faulting. We present the results of geologic and geomorphic mapping, and palaeoseismic trenching that characterise the fault's style and sense of deformation. The fault consists of two major traces. The western trace displaces colluvial, landslide, and middle to late Pleistocene alluvial fans and is associated with aligned range front saddles, linear drainages, and oversteepened range front slopes. The eastern trace is associated with a low linear bedrock ridge, a narrow graben, right deflected stream channels, and scarps in late Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits. A trench on the eastern trace of the fault exposed a clear juxtaposition of disintegrated granodiorite bedrock against sand and boulder alluvial fan deposits across a steeply east‐dipping fault. The stratigraphic evidence supports the occurrence of at least one late Pleistocene earthquake with a component of lateral displacement. As such, the Petersen Mountain fault accommodates part of the ~7 mm/yr of dextral shear distributed across the northern Walker Lane.

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A kinematic model for the evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone and Garlock Fault, Mojave Desert, California

Cited by 19 publications

References 61 publications

Mantle flow distribution beneath the California margin

Mantle flow distribution beneath the California margin

Tectonostratigraphic record of late Miocene–early Pliocene transtensional faulting in the Eastern California shear zone, southwestern USA

Early development of strike‐slip faulting: palaeoseismic study along the Petersen Mountain fault, northern Walker Lane, Nevada

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