Style of recent surface deformation at the south end of the Owens Valley fault zone, eastern California
- ENEA-Disp, Rome (Italy)
- CNR-GNDT, Rome (Italy) Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Mackey School of Mines
- CNS-MSM, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
- Humboldt State Univ., Arcata, CA (United States). Dept. of Geology
Owens Lake is at the south end of the 100+ km long 1872 right-lateral rupture of the Owens Valley fault zone. The southern termination is complex with: (1) extension near the Sierra Nevada front on a swarm of Holocene and late Pleistocene scarps; (2) intense folding of quaternary playa sediments at Bartlett Point along the right-oblique main fault, (3) extension on several faults of the playa floor, (4) probable 1872 right-lateral faulting (1.7 m) of the Holocene shorelines at the southern border of the lake and (5) the normal scarp (0.2--0.6 m high) at Red Ridge (Coso Range). The morphology of this scarp (almost undegraded free face) strongly suggests a 1872 origin. The pattern of faulting at Owens Lake indicates that it is a pull-apart basin, controlled by right-steps of the main NNW right-slip fault zone, with connection to NE and N-S normal faults. Also the prominent scarps at the SE edge of the lake generally interpreted as lake highstands are fault-controlled. This complex network of faults is expressed on low-sun angle photographs and detailed topographic maps. The O.V.F.Z. continues southward in the Coso Range, as evidenced by strongly folded Pliocene lacustrine deposits, and probably links to the Little Lake F.Z. near the Coso volcanic field. It is noteworthy that both the late quaternary basaltic volcanic fields near Big Pine at the northern end of the 1872 fault and the Coso volcanic field are at right-steps of the fault zone.
- OSTI ID:
- 5023930
- 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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