Earthquake recurrence and fault behavior on the Homestead Valley fault -- Central segment of the 1992 Landers surface rupture sequence
- ING, Rome (Italy)
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
The 1992 M 7.5 Landers earthquake produced complex surface rupture on sections of the previously mapped Johnson Valley, Homestead Valley, and Emerson faults. The earthquake has raised questions about new faulting, characteristic earthquakes, and fault segmentation. To address these issues the authors initiated a study of both ruptured and unruptured fault segments, and report initial observations on the Homestead Valley fault (HVF). The authors site is located at the distal end of a large alluvial fan where 1992 right slip was 3 m, vertical slip was 40 cm, and the rupture followed pre-existing NE-facing scarps. Two trenches provide clear evidence of the two most recent pre-1992 surface faulting events. The trenches exposed alluvial fan and scarp derived colluvial deposits that are displaced and locally warped by both vertical strike-slip and low angle reverse-oblique( )-slip faults. At the main fault trace two pre-1992 colluvial wedges overlie a distinctive Bt soil horizon of late( ) Pleistocene age. Colluvium from the penultimate event has weak soil development, indicating a Holocene age for this faulting; apparent vertical displacement from this event is 35 cm, essentially the same as 1992. Preliminary observations indicate that recurrence of large magnitude earthquakes on faults of the Eastern California Shear Zone is one to two orders of magnitude longer than on major faults of the San Andreas system. The length of the HVF is short for this amount of offset, which suggests prior events may have also involved the rupture of multiple fault segments.
- OSTI ID:
- 5436719
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 25:5; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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