Model for deformation in Long Valley, California, 1980-1983
Geodetic data collected in Long Valley, California, from 1975 through 1981 define a pattern of uplift and strain which is evidently associated with a sequence of earthquakes occuring in May 1980 and subsequent swarm activity continuing until the present. We have constructed a model to explain the deformation observed since May 1980 in terms of inflation of two subsurface magma chambers, faulting in the south most region of the caldera, and slip in the Hilton Creek fault. The most significant new feature of the model is the shallow magma chamber at 5 km depth, located a few hundred meters to the east of the Casa Diablo hot spring area. Inflation of this chamber cause stresses which show consistency with various aspects of the seismicity in the south moat of the calcers. Calculations of stress across vertical planes over the magma chambers can be used together with failure criteria to estimate the inflation volume at which the rock layers intervening between the chamber and the surface will fail by extensional fracture.
- Research Organization:
- Geophysics Division, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- OSTI ID:
- 6151196
- Journal Information:
- J. Geophys. Res.; (United States), Vol. 89:B11
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
High-resolution microseismicity study of possible magmatic intrusion in the Long Valley Caldera
Magmatic resurgence in Long Valley Caldera, California: possible cause of the 1980 Mammoth Lakes earthquakes