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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L01304, doi:10.1029/2007GL031970, 2008

Late Pleistocene slip rate along the Owens Valley fault, eastern California

Eric Kirby

Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA


Sridhar Anandakrishnan

Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA


Fred Phillips

Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA


Shasta Marrero

Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA


Abstract

The Owens Valley fault zone (OVF) is one of the primary structures accommodating dextral shear across the Eastern California shear zone (ECSZ). Previous estimates of the Holocene slip rate along this structure rely on paleoseismic data and yield rates 2–3 times lower than those implied by geodetic velocities. Using displaced lava flows along the flank of Crater Mountain, we present the first estimate of slip rate along the OVF during the late Pleistocene. Subsurface characterization of the flow margin using a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) allows for relatively precise determination of dextral displacement, and terrestrial cosmogenic 36Cl exposure ages of samples from the flow surface yield slip rates between ∼2.8 – 4.5 mm/yr over the past 55–80 kyr. Our results suggest either that paleoseismic slip-rate estimates underestimate the long-term slip rate or that rates of strain release have not been steady during the latter part of the Quaternary.

Received 7 September 2007; accepted 19 November 2007; published 4 January 2008.

Keywords: cosmogenic radionuclides; Eastern California shear zone; Owens Valley.

Index Terms: 8111 Tectonophysics: Continental tectonics: strike-slip and transform; 8107 Tectonophysics: Continental neotectonics (8002); 1150 Geochronology: Cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating (4918).

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Citation: Kirby, E., S. Anandakrishnan, F. Phillips, and S. Marrero (2008), Late Pleistocene slip rate along the Owens Valley fault, eastern California, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L01304, doi:10.1029/2007GL031970.