Late Holocene slip rate and recurrence of great earthquakes on the San Andreas fault in northern California
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States) Earth Sciences Associates, Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- Geomatrix Consultants, San Francisco, CA (United States)
The slip rate of the San Andreas fault 45 km north of San Francisco at Olema, California, is determined by matching offset segments of a buried late Holocene stream channel. Stream deposits from 1,800 {plus minus} 78 yr B.P. are offset 42.5 {plus minus} 3.5 m across the active (1906) fault trace for a minimum late Holocene slip rate of 24 {plus minus} 3 mm/yr. When local maximum coseismic displacements of 4.9 to 5.5 m from the 1906 earthquake are considered with this slip rate, the recurrence of 1906-type earthquakes on the North Coast segment of the San Andreas fault falls within the interval of 221 {plus minus} 40 yr. Both comparable coseismic slip in 1906 and similar late Holocene geologic slip rates at the Olema site and a site 145 km northwest at Point Arena (Prentice, 1989) suggest that the North Coast segment behaves as a coherent rupture unit.
- OSTI ID:
- 6951962
- Journal Information:
- Geology; (United States), Vol. 20:3; ISSN 0091-7613
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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