Logs of trenches across the Beatty scarp, Nye County, Nevada

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6693244

Swadley, W C; Huckins, H E; Taylor, E M

The trenches described in this report are part of a study to evaluate the age of possible Quaternary offset along a prominent scarp that is commonly referred to as the Beatty fault. The Beatty scarp is along the west side of Bare Mountain, 2 km south of Beatty, Nye County, Nevada. The west-facing scarp trends generally north-south and extends for approximately 10 km, nearly parallel to US Highway 95 and to the main channel of the nearby Amargosa River. The scarp is formed chiefly in coarse alluvial gravels of early to middle Pleistocene age; minor segments of the scarp are in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. The scarp is discontinuous; for about 55% of its length, it has been destroyed by erosion by intermittent, crosscutting streams, or it is buried by younger deposits of crosscutting streams. Data suggest that the Beatty scarp at that location resulted from lateral erosion by the Amargosa River and that fluvial deposits exposed in the trench at the base of the scarp are contemporaneous with tht erosion. Dating of these deposits should provide a minimum age for the scarp. Trench BF-2 exposed no conclusive evidence of faulting along that part of the scarp. If faulting occurred, it preceded unit Q1c deposition (early Holocene.).

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Reston, VA (USA); Fenix and Scisson, Inc., Tulsa, OK (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6693244
• Report Number(s): USGS/MAP/MF-1897; ON: TI87006793
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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