Aerial view of the Queen Valley and Coaldale faults at the northern end of White Mountains. Photo by D. Stockli

Sierra Nevada normal fault, Onion Creek.

Project Summary

The research focus of these collaborative NSF funded projects centers on the kinematics and active tectonics of the northern part of the Eastern California Shear Zone and southern Walker Lane Belt. These two regions straddle a complex zone—the boundary between dominantly east-west extension in the Basin and Range Province to the east and dominantly NW-dextral shear along the Pacific-North American plate boundary to the west. The interaction between extension and transcurrent shear has resulted in the development of a complex array of faults that accommodate intraplate strain.

Our field-based research, combined with tectonic geomorphology, paleoseismology, thermochronology, and geochronology investigations, focuses on two regions. The first region is the northern part of the Eastern California Shear Zone where we are investigating the kinematics and active tectonics of a system of intraplate dextral and normal faults. The second region is the southern Walker Lane Belt, known as the Mina deflection, where we are studying the kinematics and active tectonics of an integrated system of dextral, sinistral, and normal faults. Our research on the spatial and temporal patterns of strain release during late Cenozoic to Recent times is motivated in large part by ongoing geodetic investigations on present-day magnitude of strain accumulation and patterns of strain distribution across the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt. Furthermore, data sets from both regions will provide important constraints on geodynamic hypotheses proposed for the evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt. An accurate characterization of the temporal and spatial strain distribution within the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt is crucial for understanding tectonic processes over a much broader area of intraplate deformation associated with the interaction between the Pacific and North American plates.

Research collaborators include: Lewis Owen (University of Cincinnati), Bob Finkel (Lawrence Livermore Lab), John Oswald (Scotia Pacific Company), Andy Calvert (USGS), Charlie Rubin (CWU), Danny Stockli (Univ. of Kansas), and John Gosse (Dalhousie Univ.).

Student Research Projects

• Jeffrey Schroeder (PhD, Univ. of Kansas), in progress, Geologic and neotectonic strain transfer in northern Fish Lake Valley, Nevada.
• Erik Scott (MS, CWU), in progress, Recent dextral and normal slip along the eastern Sierra Nevada range front, Rose Valley, California.
• David Bradley (MS, Univ. of Kansas), 2005, Constraints on the magnitude and rate of Pliocene to Recent slip along the left-lateral Coaldale fault, central Walker Lane Belt, Nevada.
• Kit Tincher (MS, Univ. of Kansas), 2005, Pliocene faulting in eastern Queen Valley, Nevada: Implications for strain transfer in the central Walker Lane Belt.
• John Casteel (MS, CWU), 2005, Late Miocene to Holocene faulting along the southwestern Inyo Mountains fault zone, eastern California.
• Kimberly Le (MS, CWU), 2004, Late Pleistocene to Holocene extension across the Sierra Nevada range front fault system, California.
• Jeffrey Schroeder (MS, CWU), 2003, Late Pleistocene dextral slip along the White Mountains fault zone, California.
• Jason Garwood (Senior thesis, CWU), 2003 Recent fault slip in Queen Valley, California: Implications for fault kinematics in the Eastern California Shear Zone.
• Ken Austin, Will Blanton, Ana Cadena, Erik Johansen, and Sam VanLangenheim (Senior thesis, CWU), 1997, Magnitude of offset and relative age dating of faulting along the Deep Springs fault, California.

Publications

• Bradley, D., Stockli, D., and Lee, J., Kinematic history of the Coaldale fault, central Walker Lane Belt, Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin., in preparation.
• Schroeder, J., Lee, J., Owen, L., and Finkel, R.C., Pleistocene dextral fault slip along the White Mountains fault zone, California: Implications for kinematics of fault slip in the Eastern California Shear Zone. Geological Society of America Bulletin, in revision.
• 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].
• Lee, J., Garwood, J., Stockli, D.F, and Gosse, J., 2008, Quaternary faulting in Queen Valley, California-Nevada: Implications for kinematics of fault slip transfer in the Eastern California Shear Zone-Walker Lane Belt, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 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]
• Lee, J., Stockli, D., Schroeder, J., Tincher, C., Bradley, D., Owen, L., Gosse, J., Finkel, R., and Garwood, J., 2006, Fault slip transfer in the Eastern California Shear Zone-Walker Lane Belt. Geological Society of America Penrose Conference Field Trip Guide, (Kinematics and Geodynamics of Intraplate Dextral Shear in Eastern California and Western Nevada, Mammoth Lakes, California, 21-26 April 2005), 26 p., doi: 101130/2006.FSTITE.PFG. [PDF]
• Glazner, A.F., Lee, J., Bartley, J.M., Coleman, D.S., and Kylander-Clark, A., Green, D.C., and Le, K. 2005, Large dextral offset across Owens Valley, California from 148 Ma to 1872 A.D., in Western Great Basin Geology, Stevens, C. and Cooper, J. (eds.), The Pacific Section Society of Sedimentary Geology, Book 99, p. 1-35. [PDF]
• Lee, J., Spencer, J., and Owen, L., 2001, Holocene slip rates along the Owens Valley fault, California: Implications for the recent evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone. Geology, v. 29, 819-822. [PDF]
• Lee, J., Rubin, C.M., and Calvert, A., 2001, Quaternary faulting history along the Deep Springs fault, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 855-869. [PDF]

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