The Owens Valley fault zone, eastern California, and surface faulting associated with the 1872 earthquake

Abstract

Introduction 1 General 1 Purpose of study 4 Acknowledgments 4 Historical records and previous work 4 Geologic setting 5 Geology 5 History of Owens Lake and age of valley fill 6 Structural setting of Owens Valley 7 Description of the Owens Valley fault zone and the 1872 surface rupture 8 General description 8 Relation of the Owens Valley fault zone to geologic units 11 Displacement along the 1872 surface rupture 11 History of activity along the Owens Valley fault zone 19 Discussion 22 Displacement and magnitude of the 1872 Earthquake 22 Late Quaternary slip rates and recurrence intervals for the Owens Valley fault zone 23 Significance of strike-slip motion on the Owens Valley fault zone 24 References cited 26 FRONTISPIECE Oblique aerial photograph looking south-southeast down Owens Valley PLATES [In pocket] 1. Maps showing 1872 ruptures and other fault traces along the southern part of the Owens Valley fault zone 2. Maps showing 1872 ruptures and other fault traces along the central part of the Owens Valley fault zone 3. Maps showing 1872 ruptures and other fault traces along the northern part of the Owens Valley fault zone 4. Generalized geologic map of Owens Valley, showing 1872 rupture, other Quaternary faults, and shoreline features of Owens Lake, and table 3 Contents V VI Contents

A Remote Sensing and GIS Analysis of Rockfall Distributions from the 5 July 2019 Ridgecrest (MW7.1) and 24 June 2020 Owens Lake (MW5.8) Earthquakes

“…Earthquakes in eastern California within the Walker Lane/eastern California Shear Zone (WL/ECSZ) have a long history of producing significant rockfall events. The 26 March 1872 7.8 MW Lone Pine quake had an estimated total rupture length between 90 and 130 km [31,32] with an average right-lateral slip of 6 m and a total oblique slip of 6.1 m [31]. This event, with an epicenter ~20 km north of the 2020 Owens Lake shock and felt across all of California [32], is known to have produced large rockfalls as far away as Yosemite Valley (~175 km).…”