Triangular facet, Cortez Mountains, Nevada

Dynamics of Normal Fault Systems in the Basin and Range Province and Tibet

The focus of this project is the dynamics of a system of intraplate normal faults in the Basin and Range Province and Tibet using geologic mapping, tectonic geomorphology, paleoseismology, geochronology, and thermochronology on range fronts faults. In the Basin and Range Province, our research is motivated in part by ongoing GPS studies of contemporary strain accumulation across the Province. In light of these studies of strain accumulation patterns, it is timely to obtain a precise chronology of late Quaternary strain release across the province. The two datasets in combination would provide a basis for modeling the dynamics of Basin and Range faulting. In Tibet, our research is motivated by the observation that extension is ongoing in a region of continental collision, convergence, and profound crustal thickening.

Research collaborators are Lewis Owen (University of Cincinnati), Bob Finkel (Lawrence Livermore Lab), Brain Wernicke (CalTech), Anke Friedrich (Univ. of Potsdam), Fred Phillips (New Mexico Tech), Danny Stockli (Univ. of Kansas), and Simon Wallis (Univ. of Nagoya, Japan).

Publications

• Lee, J., Stockli, D.F., Owen, L.A., Finkel, R.C., and Kislitsyn, R., 2008, Exhumation of the Inyo Mountains, California: Implications for the timing of extension along the western boundary of the Basin and Range Province and distribution of dextral fault slip rates across the Eastern California Shear Zone, Tectonics, in press. [pre-print PDF].
• Le, K., Lee, J., Owen, L.A., and Finkel, R., 2007, Late Quaternary slip rates along the Sierra Nevada frontal fault zone, California: Slip partitioning across the western margin of the Eastern California Shear Zone-Basin and Range Province. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 119, p. 240–256; doi: 10.1130/B25960.1. [PDF]
• Friedrich, A.M., Lee, J.,, Wernicke, B.P., and Sieh, K. 2004, Geologic context of geodetic data across a Basin and Range normal fault, Crescent Valley, Nevada. Tectonics, 23, TC2015, doi:10.1029/2003TC001528. [PDF]

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