Tectonic implications of a dense continuous GPS velocity field at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Wernicke, Brian P.; Davis, J. L.; Bennett, Richard A.; Normandeau, J.; Friedrich, Anke; Niemi, Nathan A.

doi:10.1029/2003jb002832

Cited by 35 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Furthermore, the network is located in a low-humidity, lowprecipitation, desert environment. Estimated tectonic rates are also low, at the level of $1 mm/yr over the $60 km width of the Yucca Mountain regional network [Wernicke et al, 2004;Hill and Blewitt, 2006].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This network is an expansion of the existing Basin and Range Geodetic Network (BARGEN) [Wernicke et al, 2000[Wernicke et al, , 2004, and is located along the crest of Yucca Mountain, southern Nevada ( Figure 1) in a position directly above the nation's only proposed civilian nuclear waste repository site. The network takes advantage of an older site (REPO), which was built in 1999, plus three additional sites (REP2, REP3, and REP4), installed in 2006 and spaced at $10, $100, and $1000 m north of REPO, respectively ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterization of site‐specific GPS errors using a short‐baseline network of braced monuments at Yucca Mountain, southern Nevada

et al. 2009

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[1] We use a short-baseline network of braced monuments to investigate site-specific GPS effects. The network has baseline lengths of $10, 100, and 1000 m. Baseline time series have root mean square (RMS) residuals, about a model for the seasonal cycle, of 0.05-0.24 mm for the horizontal components and 0.20-0.72 mm for the radial. Seasonal cycles occur, with amplitudes of 0.04-0.60 mm, even for the horizontal components and even for the shortest baselines. For many time series these lag seasonal cycles in local temperature measurements by 23-43 days. This could suggest that they are related to bedrock thermal expansion. Both shorter-period signals and seasonal cycles for shorter baselines to REP2, the one short-braced monument in our network, are correlated with temperature, with no lag time. Differences between REP2 and the other stations, which are deep-braced, should reflect processes occurring in the upper few meters of the ground. These correlations may be related to thermal expansion of these upper ground layers, and/or thermal expansion of the monuments themselves. Even over these short distances we see a systematic increase in RMS values with increasing baseline length. This, and the low RMS levels, suggests that site-specific effects are unlikely to be the limiting factor in the use of similar GPS sites for geophysical investigations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of site‐specific GPS errors using a short‐baseline network of braced monuments at Yucca Mountain, southern Nevada

et al. 2009

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“…Regional extension at Yucca Mountain has an observed least principal stress direction of ϳN60ЊW (Stock et al, 1985;Harmsen, 1994;Morris et al, 1996). We therefore applied uniaxial strain across the model at a rate of 20 nstrain yr Ϫ1 on a N60ЊW orientation, consistent with geodetic (Savage et al, 2001;Wernicke et al, 2004) and geologic (Fridrich et al, 1999) rates. The north and south model boundaries were left unconstrained, and the model base was free to move horizontally.…”

Section: Model Loadsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Earthquake and volcano clustering via stress transfer at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Parsons

Thompson

Cogbill

2006

Geol

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The proposed national high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is close to Quaternary cinder cones and faults with Quaternary slip. Volcano eruption and earthquake frequencies are low, with indications of spatial and temporal clustering, making probabilistic assessments difficult. In an effort to identify the most likely intrusion sites, we based a three-dimensional finite-element model on the expectation that faulting and basalt intrusions are sensitive to the magnitude and orientation of the least principal stress in extensional terranes. We found that in the absence of fault slip, variation in overburden pressure caused a stress state that preferentially favored intrusions at Crater Flat. However, when we allowed central Yucca Mountain faults to slip in the model, we found that magmatic clustering was not favored at Crater Flat or in the central Yucca Mountain block. Instead, we calculated that the stress field was most encouraging to intrusions near fault terminations, consistent with the location of the most recent volcanism at Yucca Mountain, the Lathrop Wells cone. We found this linked fault and magmatic system to be mutually reinforcing in the model in that Lathrop Wells feeder dike inflation favored renewed fault slip.

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“…As a consequence, a series of investigations over the last few years have studied the geology of the region. Particular focus has been made on the deformation history to investigate if the major structures in the region are active and if, therefore, they propose an active threat to the site (Morris et al, 2004;Potter et al, 2004;Wernicke et al, 2004;Hill and Blewitt, 2006). The erosional history on the other hand has only been studied with respect to the documentation of erosion features (e.g., Coe et al, 1997) and the climatic history (e.g., Forester et al, 1999), but no forward predictions of the incision rates of the valleys have been made.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%