Late Quaternary Paleoseismology of the Southern Steens Fault Zone, Northern Nevada

Personius, Stephen F.; Crone, Anthony J.; Machette, Michael N.; Mahan, Shannon A.; Kyung, Jai Bok; Cisneros, Hector; Lidke, David J.

doi:10.1785/0120060202

Cited by 10 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…3). The complex array of faults forming the western margin of the Alvord basin constitutes several segments of the Steens fault system (Hemphill-Haley et al, 1999; Personius et al, 2006Personius et al, , 2007. The eastern fl ank of the basin is bound by the East Pueblo Valley fault in the south and the Tule Springs Rim fault in the north.…”

Section: Alvord Basin Physiography and Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The fault displacement history within the Alvord basin was studied by Hemphill-Haley (1987) and Hemphill-Haley et al (2000), who mapped several faults cutting Quaternary sediments in the central part of the basin, and by Personius et al (2006Personius et al ( , 2007 system exposed in Bog Hot Valley (Fig. 2).…”

Section: Active Deformation In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Bog Hot Valley (Fig. 2) at the southern extremity of the Alvord extensional basin system, Personius et al (2006Personius et al ( , 2007 trenched the southern end of the Steens fault system and recognized multiple earthquake ruptures with vertical displacements of 1.1-2.2 m that occurred before 4.6 ka. Taken together, trench studies and scarp morphology analysis point to displacements on Holocene faults no younger than 2 ka, and probably no younger than 4.6 ka.…”

Section: Active Deformation In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The shorelines are exposed around the basin and assigned to late Pleistocene and an older lake cycles based on soil profi les, weathering analysis, and cosmogenic age determinations (Carter et al, 2006;Personius et al, 2006Personius et al, , 2007. In several parts of the basin, fl ights composed of fi ve (Lindberg, 1999;Carter et al, 2006) and as many as eight (Singleton, 2004) individual shorelines are recognized.…”

Section: Wave-cut Terraces In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this part of the Alvord basin, the mapped surfaces constitute two fl ights of four shorelines each, exposed east and west of the Steens Mountain fault. Along the western fl ank of the valley in the footwall of the fault, shoreline elevations range from 1308 to 1295 m, whereas in the hanging wall to the east, the shorelines range from 1291 to 1279 m. The formation of the lower shorelines exposed in the footwall just above the Steens fault was dated as 17.83 ± 1.1 ka from luminescence ages on samples from a soil pit and paleoseismology trench (Personius et al, 2007).…”

Section: Wave-cut Terraces In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning in determining the pattern of late Pleistocene and Holocene fault displacement from the offset of pluvial lake shorelines in the Alvord extensional basin, northern Great Basin, USA

Oldow¹,

Singleton²

2008

Geosphere

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The northward-trending Alvord extensional basin of southeastern Oregon lies along the northern margin of the Great Basin. The basin is nearly 200 km long and 15 km wide and is bound and internally dissected by a complex system of active normal faults. The faults cut Pleistocene wave-cut terraces that formed along successive shorelines of pluvial Lake Alvord. The wave-cut terraces are incised into late Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary rocks and unconsolidated Quaternary sediments. The terraces formed during stillstands of the ancient lake, during at least two cycles of lake fi ll and desiccation in the Pleistocene. Wave-cut terraces are divided into two sets, with the topographically higher and older Serrano terrace series consisting of three shorelines and the Alvord terrace series composed of the fi ve topographically lower and younger shorelines. Shorelines are dated locally, and together with regional correlation to other pluvial lakes, the Serrano highstand is estimated as 200-130 ka and the Alvord highstand as 20-15 ka. High-resolution topographic images of the terrace morphology acquired by Terrestrial Laser Scanning georeferenced with the Global Positioning System allowed detailed analysis of shoreline altitudes where they are crosscut by faults. Variation in shoreline altitude measured across faults and on opposing sides of the basin indicates that fault slip occurred during and following periods of lake-level recession. The Serrano terrace highstand records a cumulative vertical displacement of 137.5 ± 3.6 m and the vertical offset of the younger Alvord terrace series highstand is 72.5 ± 2.8 m. Fault displacement is heterogeneously distributed across the basin. Faults along the western margin of the basin accommodated nearly 50% of the total displacement, with one fault accommodating over 20% of the total displacement budget. The residual displacement is distributed across the basin. As much as 30% of the cumulative offset is taken up by structures concealed beneath basin cover and 20% by structures exposed in the highlands along the eastern fl ank of the basin. Since formation of the Alvord shorelines, the rate of fault displacement was nonperiodic and the basin underwent elevated activity in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Vertical displacement rates vary through time, and offset of Alvord terraces occurred at 3.6-7.3 mm/ yr, whereas displacement of the Serrano terraces ranged from 0.7 to 1.1 mm/yr. When the horizontal component of motion is calculated by using fault dips of 60°, the 10 4 yr time-scale rate determined from the Alvord terraces is as much as 2.4-4.2 mm/ yr and exceeds the contemporary horizontal displacement across the basin of 1.75 mm/ yr determined geodetically. The 10 5 yr horizontal displacement rate calculated for the Serrano highstand is substantially lower, 0.4-0.6 mm/yr. Spatial and temporal pattern of faulting within the Alvord basin illustrates the complexity of strain release within the basin and highlights the lengthand time-scale dependence of deformation rate esti...

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Section: Alvord Basin Physiography and Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Active Deformation In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Active Deformation In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wave-cut Terraces In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wave-cut Terraces In the Alvord Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning in determining the pattern of late Pleistocene and Holocene fault displacement from the offset of pluvial lake shorelines in the Alvord extensional basin, northern Great Basin, USA

Oldow¹,

Singleton²

2008

Geosphere

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The northwestern margin of the Basin and Range province

Egger¹,

Glen²,

Ponce³

2010

Tectonophysics

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Moderate rates of late Quaternary slip along the northwestern margin of the Basin and Range Province, Surprise Valley fault, northeastern California

et al. 2009

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[1] The 86-km-long Surprise Valley normal fault forms part of the active northwestern margin of the Basin and Range province in northeastern California. We use trench mapping and radiocarbon, luminescence, and tephra dating to estimate displacements and timing of the past five surface-rupturing earthquakes on the central part of the fault near Cedarville. A Bayesian OxCal analysis of timing constraints indicates earthquake times of 18.2 ± 2.6, 10.9 ± 3.2, 8.5 ± 0.5, 5.8 ± 1.5, and 1.2 ± 0.1 ka. These data yield recurrence intervals of 7.3 ± 4.1, 2.5 ± 3.2, 2.7 ± 1.6, and 4.5 ± 1.5 ka and an elapsed time of 1.2 ± 0.1 ka since the latest surface-rupturing earthquake. Our best estimate of latest Quaternary vertical slip rate is 0.6 ± 0.1 mm/a. This late Quaternary rate is remarkably similar to long-term (8-14 Ma) minimum vertical slip rates (>0.4-0.5 ± 0.3 mm/a) calculated from recently acquired seismic reflection and chronologic and structural data in Surprise Valley and the adjacent Warner Mountains. However, our slip rate yields estimates of extension that are lower than recent campaign GPS determinations by factors of 1.5-4 unless the fault has an unusually shallow (30°-35°) dip as suggested by recently acquired seismic reflection data. Coseismic displacements of 2-4.5 ± 1 m documented in the trench and probable rupture lengths of 53-65 km indicate a history of latest Quaternary earthquakes of M 6.8-7.3 on the central part of the Surprise Valley fault.

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Late Quaternary Paleoseismology of the Southern Steens Fault Zone, Northern Nevada

Cited by 10 publications

References 50 publications

Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning in determining the pattern of late Pleistocene and Holocene fault displacement from the offset of pluvial lake shorelines in the Alvord extensional basin, northern Great Basin, USA

Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning in determining the pattern of late Pleistocene and Holocene fault displacement from the offset of pluvial lake shorelines in the Alvord extensional basin, northern Great Basin, USA

The northwestern margin of the Basin and Range province

Moderate rates of late Quaternary slip along the northwestern margin of the Basin and Range Province, Surprise Valley fault, northeastern California

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