Basin and Range extensional tectonics at the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada

Wernicke, Brian P.; Axen, Gary J.; Snow, J. Kent

doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1988)100<1738:bareta>2.3.co;2

Cited by 323 publications

(250 citation statements)

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“…The valley is an oblique pull-apart basin in the transition between the extensional Basin and Range Province and the right-lateral strike-slip faults comprising the eastern California shear zone (Burchfiel and Stewart, 1966). The valley has formed since the Miocene by displacement along a down-to-the-west normal fault in a step-over between the dextral southern Death Valley and northern Death Valley fault zones (Burchfiel and Stewart, 1966;Hamilton, 1988;Wernicke et al, 1988;Burchfiel et al, 1995;Miller and Pavlis, 2005). Death Valley is bounded by the Cottonwood and Panamint Mountains, and Last Chance Range to the west; and the Grapevine, Funeral and Black Mountains to the east.…”

Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Beryllium-10 terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of Quaternary landforms in Death Valley

et al. 2011

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Section: Regional Settingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Beryllium-10 terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of Quaternary landforms in Death Valley

et al. 2011

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“…BURCHFIEL and STEWART (1966) suggested that due to strike-slip faulting within the topographic low of Death Valley, Death Valley formed as a pull-apart basin. However, with the recognition of low-angle detachment faults in the 1970s and 80s numerous authors (e.g., WRIGHT and TROXEL 1973;HAMILTON 1988;WERNICKE et al 1988;HODGES et al 1989) have incorporated extensional models into explaining the structural origin of Death Valley. MILLER and PAVLIS (2005) divided the strikeslip and detachment faulting models into two groups:…”

Section: Tectonic and Geophysical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The detachment faulting models (STEWART 1983;WERNICKE et al 1988;SNOW and WERNICKE 1989) suggest that Death Valley formed mainly by a low-angle detachment fault that moved the Panamint Range 80 km to the west of its original position east of the Black Mountains with the strike-slip faults occurring in upper crust edges of the detachment faults. The strike-slip fault models (WRIGHT and TROXEL 1984;SERPA and PAVLIS 1996;MILLER and PRAVE 2002) suggest that Death Valley formed as a pull-apart basin between the terminations of deep crustal strike-slip Northern Death Valley-Furnace and Southern Death Valley strike-slip faults.…”

Section: Tectonic and Geophysical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curie Point Depth Estimates from Aeromagnetic Data from Death Valley and Surrounding Regions, California

Hussein

Mickus

Serpa

2012

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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Aeromagnetic data were analyzed to determine the Curie point depth (CPD) by power density spectral and threedimensional inversion methods within and surrounding Death Valley in southern California. We calculated the CPD for 0.5°r egions using 2D power density spectral methods and found that the CPDs varied between 8 and 17 km. However, the 0.5°region may average areas that include shallow and deep CPDs, and because of this limitation, we used the 3D inversion method to determine if this method may provide better resolution of the CPDs. The final 3D model indicates that the depth to the bottom of the magnetic susceptible bodies varies between 5 and 23 km. Even though both methods produced roughly similar results, the 3D inversion method produced a higher lateral resolution of the CPDs. The shallowest CPDs occur within the central and southern Death Valley, Panamint Valley, Coso geothermal field and the Tecopa hot springs region. Deeper ([15 km) CPDs occur over outcropping granitic and Precambrian lithologies in the Panamint Range, Grapevine Mountains, Black Mountains and the Argus Range. The shallowest CPD occurs within the central Death Valley over a possible seismically imaged magma body and slightly deeper values occur within the Panamint Valley, southern Death Valley and Tecopa Hot Springs. The shallow CPD values suggest that partially molten material may also be found in these latter regions. The CPD computed heat flow values for the region suggest that the entire area has high heat flow values ([100 mW m -2 ), on the other hand, locally extremely high values ([200 mW m -2 ) occur within the Panamint Valley, the southern and central Death Valley and Tecopa Hot Springs region. These locally high heat flow values may be related to midcrustal magma bodies; but additional geophysical experiments are needed to determine if the magma bodies exist.

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“…1). The basin was formed by extensional tectonics (WERNICKE et al, 1988) and is filled with Tertiary sediments in the deeper sections and Quaternary alluvial and lake-bed sediments at the surface (TABOR, 1982). The basin is bounded on the north by the Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone (LVVSZ) and the Las Vegas Range, on the east by Frenchman Mountain and on the west by the Spring Mountains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site Response in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada from NTS Explosions and Earthquake Data

Rodgers

Tkalčić

McCallen

et al. 2006

Pure appl. geophys.

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We report site response in Las Vegas Valley (LVV) from historical recordings of Nevada Test Site (NTS) nuclear explosions and earthquake recordings from permanent and temporary seismic stations. Our data set significantly improves the spatial coverage of LVV over previous studies, especially in the northern, deeper parts of the basin. Site response at stations in LVV was measured for frequencies in the range 0.2-5.0 Hz using Standard Spectral Ratios (SSR) and Horizontal-Vertical Spectral Ratios (HVR). For the SSR measurements we used a reference site (approximately NEHRP B ''rock'' classification) located on Frenchman Mountain outside the basin. Site response at sedimentary sites is variable in LVV with average amplifications approaching a factor of 10 at some frequencies. We observed peaks in the site response curves at frequencies clustered near 0.6, 1.2 and 2.0 Hz, with some sites showing additional lower amplitude peaks at higher frequencies. The spatial pattern of site response is strongly correlated with the reported depth to basement for frequencies between 0.2 and 3.0 Hz, although the frequency of peak amplification does not show a similar correlation. For a few sites where we have geotechnical shear velocities, the amplification shows a correlation with the average upper 30-meter shear velocities, V 30 . We performed two-dimensional finite difference simulations and reproduced the observed peak site amplifications at 0.6 and 1.2 Hz with a low velocity near-surface layer with shear velocities 600-750 m/s and a thickness of 100-200 m. These modeling results indicate that the amplitude and frequencies of site response peaks in LVV are strongly controlled by shallow velocity structure.

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Basin and Range extensional tectonics at the latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada

Cited by 323 publications

References 0 publications

Beryllium-10 terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of Quaternary landforms in Death Valley

Beryllium-10 terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating of Quaternary landforms in Death Valley

Curie Point Depth Estimates from Aeromagnetic Data from Death Valley and Surrounding Regions, California

Site Response in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada from NTS Explosions and Earthquake Data

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