The Walker Lane in northeastern California

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990 · California Geology (California Division of Mines and Geology); (USA)

OSTI ID:6225192

Saucedo, G J; Wagner, D L; Grose, T L.T.

The Walker Lane (Locke and others, 1940) was defined as a narrow northwest-trending dextral fault zone that separates basin- and range topography on the east from diverse topography on the west that extends discontinuously from Lake Mead to Honey Lake. The term Walker Lane Belt (Steward, 1988) expands the feature to include a wide zone east of the Sierra Nevada. Pease (1969), Hannah (1977), and Grose (1986) suggested that the tectonic characteristics of Walker Lane continue into the Modoc Plateau. The authors believe that it is useful to recognize the Walker Lane or Walker Lane Belt in the Modoc Plateau. Within the Modoc Plateau, a 25-km wide (15-mile wide) zone of northwest-southeast faults herein recognized as the Walker Lane, trends N35{degree}W from Honey Lake Basin to Medicine Lake Highland. Mapping in the Eagle Lake area revealed northwest-southeast, north-south, and northeast-southwest late Quaternary faults and rifts, eruptive fissures, small tectonic depressions, and the large Eagle Lake volcano-tectonic depression. To the east is a remarkably unfaulted Neogene volcanic terrane extending 70 km (42 miles) eastward to the Dry Valley-Smoke Creek Desert fault system in Nevada. To the west in the Cascades complex late Pliocene-Quaternary faulting, linear basaltic cones, and andesite volcanoes are all aligned N15{degree}-30{degree}W. This Modoc part of the Walker Lane Belt displays blocks tilted mostly 3{degree}-10{degree}E bounded by west-dipping normal faults and right diagonal normal faults. Left stepping north-south trending rifts occur within northwest trending, straight right diagonal-slip fault zones.

• OSTI ID: 6225192
• Journal Information: California Geology (California Division of Mines and Geology); (USA), Journal Name: California Geology (California Division of Mines and Geology); (USA) Vol. 43:2; ISSN 0026-4555; ISSN CGEOA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580000* -- Geosciences
BASALT
CALIFORNIA
CENOZOIC ERA
CORRELATIONS
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
IGNEOUS ROCKS
LAKES
MAPPING
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
PLIOCENE EPOCH
QUATERNARY PERIOD
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
RIFT ZONES
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SURFACE WATERS
TECTONICS
TERTIARY PERIOD
TOPOGRAPHY
USA
VOLCANIC ROCKS
VOLCANISM