Strain Accumulation Versus Strain Release: A Paleoseismic Transect across the Northern Great Basin

Board Of Regents, Nshe, Obo University Of Nevada, Reno, Reno NV

Investigators

Abstract

Wesnousky 0086667 The Great Basin province is the largest, best-exposed, and most accessible region of continental extension in the world and accounts for up to 25% of the motion across the North American - Pacfic plate boundary. Global Positioning Satellite GPS measurements operated by others are beginning to provide a picture of strain accumulation across the Basin. It is the process of strain release that results in the structure, physiography, and the spatial and temporal pattern of earthquakes that define the Basin and Range as we observe it today. Measures of both strain accumulation and strain release are required to understand the dynamics and evolution of deformation in the Basin and Range province. Neotectonic and paleoseismic techniques are being applied to active faults that bound major mountain fronts that sit subparallel to the existing GPS transects and adjacent to the I-80 corridor of Nevada. The paleoseismic studies are designed to quantify and compare the history and evolution of fault displacement through the late Quaternary to the pattern of strain accumulation that is being observed today.