Late Quaternary slip rate of the Owl Lake fault and maximum age of the latest event on the easternmost Garlock fault, S. California
- California State Univ., San Bernardino, CA (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
The Owl Lake fault is an active, left-lateral oblique-slip fault in the southwestern Basin and Range province. It intersects the left-lateral Garlock fault in the Quail Mountains and extends about 19 km northeastern toward southern Death Valley. The eastern wall of a channel incised into Late Tertiary or Quaternary fanglomerate north of the fault and into Late Quaternary alluvial fan deposits south of the fault has been offset at least 43 meters left-laterally. This slip estimate is a minimum because of possible erosion of the channel wall upstream from (north of) the fault. If the upstream channel prior to offset was of comparable width to the modern channel, the offset is no more than about 80 m. Organic matter entombed beneath rock varnish on two boulders on the alluvial fan surface into which the channel incised has conventional radiocarbon ages of 29,470 [+-] 270 and 30,820 [+-] 280 years B.P. Abandonment of the fan surface was probably caused by incision of the offset channel, so the channel wall probably has a similar age. This suggests a preliminary left-lateral slip rate of about 1--3 mm/yr for the Owl Lake fault. Fault scarp heights suggest relative uplift of the northwestern side of the fault by at least 1--2 meters and possibly more since deposition of the Late Quaternary fan. At a site in the Avawatz Mountains, within 2 km of the eastern end of the Garlock fault (Leach Lake strand), a terrace riser has been offset 2.7 [+-] 0.6 m left-laterally and 0.2 m south-side-up. This offset probably occurred during the most recent large earthquake on this part of the fault. Organic matter beneath varnish on two cobbles on the upper terrace has conventional radiocarbon ages of 1,583 [+-] 90 and 1,656 [+-] 88 years B.P. This suggests the most recent slip event occurred after a date of A.D. 150--590. This is significantly older than the maximum age (AD 1490) of the most recent slip event on the central Garlock fault in Searles Valley.
- OSTI ID:
- 5099834
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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