Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic Detachment Faulting in the Western Salton Trough: Strain Partitioning in an Oblique Active-Margin Rift

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

The process of rifting of continents to produce oceanic lithosphere is a first order phenomenon on Earth. Unfortunately, most rifted margins are buried by thick accumulations of sedimentary rock, hindering direct observation of the structures which formed during rifting. This project will address several significant questions about oblique rifting with a multi-disciplinary study of the Salton Trough in southern California. This region is undergoing active extension and right-lateral strike-slip faulting related to opening of the Gulf of California and the San Andreas fault. Exposures of bedrock are excellent and there is an opportunity to examine a plate margin caught in the process of forming. A combination of geological, sedimentological, geophysical, and geochronological methods will be brought to bear to study the partitioning of strain between strike-slip and normal faults and the accompanying sedimnetological response to each.