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Tectonic Influences on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of the Walker Lane: an Incipient Transform Fault Along the Evolving Pacific – North American Plate Boundary
Arizona Geological Society Digest 22 2008 Tectonic influences on the spatial and temporal evolution of the Walker Lane: An incipient transform fault along the evolving Pacific – North American plate boundary James E. Faulds and Christopher D. Henry Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, 89557, USA ABSTRACT Since ~30 Ma, western North America has been evolving from an Andean type mar- gin to a dextral transform boundary. Transform growth has been marked by retreat of magmatic arcs, gravitational collapse of orogenic highlands, and periodic inland steps of the San Andreas fault system. In the western Great Basin, a system of dextral faults, known as the Walker Lane (WL) in the north and eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) in the south, currently accommodates ~20% of the Pacific – North America dextral motion. In contrast to the continuous 1100-km-long San Andreas system, discontinuous dextral faults with relatively short lengths (<10-250 km) characterize the WL-ECSZ. Cumulative dextral displacement across the WL-ECSZ generally decreases northward from ≥60 km in southern and east-central California, to ~25 km in northwest Nevada, to negligible in northeast California. GPS geodetic strain rates average ~10 mm/yr across the WL-ECSZ in the western Great Basin but are much less in the eastern WL near Las Vegas (<2 mm/ yr) and along the northwest terminus in northeast California (~2.5 mm/yr). The spatial and temporal evolution of the WL-ECSZ is closely linked to major plate boundary events along the San Andreas fault system. For example, the early Miocene elimination of microplates along the southern California coast, southward steps in the Rivera triple junction at 19-16 Ma and 13 Ma, and an increase in relative plate motions ~12 Ma collectively induced the first major episode of deformation in the WL-ECSZ, which began ~13 Ma along the N60°W-trending Las Vegas Valley shear zone. -
Constraints on Present-Day Basin and Range Deformation from Space Geodesy Timothy H
University of South Florida Scholar Commons School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff School of Geosciences Publications 1995 Constraints on Present-Day Basin and Range Deformation from Space Geodesy Timothy H. Dixon University of Miami, [email protected] Stefano Robaudo University of Miami Jeffrey Lee California Institute of Technology Marith C. Reheis U.S. Geological Survey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub Part of the Earth Sciences Commons Scholar Commons Citation Dixon, Timothy H.; Robaudo, Stefano; Lee, Jeffrey; and Reheis, Marith C., "Constraints on Present-Day Basin and Range Deformation from Space Geodesy" (1995). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 495. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/495 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Geosciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff ubP lications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TECTONICS, VOL. 14, NO. 4, ]'AGES 755-772, AUGUST 1995 Constraints on present-day Basin and Range deformation from space geodesy TimothyH. Dixonand Stefano Robaudo • RosenstielSchool of Marine and AtmosphericSciences, University of Miami Miami, Florida JeffreyLee 2 Division of Geologicaland Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology,Pasadena Marith C. Reheis U.S. GeologicalSurvey, Lakewood, Colorado Abstract. We use new spacegeodetic data from very long extension.A slip rate budgetfor major strike-slipfaults in baselineinterferometry and satellite laser ranging combined our studyarea based on a combinationof local geodeticor with other geodetic and geologic data to study late Quaternary geologic data and the regional space contemporarydeformation in the Basinand Range province geodeticdata suggeststhe following rates of right-lateral of the western United States. -
Upper Neogene Stratigraphy and Tectonics of Death Valley — a Review
Earth-Science Reviews 73 (2005) 245–270 www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev Upper Neogene stratigraphy and tectonics of Death Valley — a review J.R. Knott a,*, A.M. Sarna-Wojcicki b, M.N. Machette c, R.E. Klinger d aDepartment of Geological Sciences, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92834, United States bU. S. Geological Survey, MS 975, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States cU. S. Geological Survey, MS 966, Box 25046, Denver, CO 80225-0046, United States dTechnical Service Center, U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, P. O. Box 25007, D-8530, Denver, CO 80225-0007, United States Abstract New tephrochronologic, soil-stratigraphic and radiometric-dating studies over the last 10 years have generated a robust numerical stratigraphy for Upper Neogene sedimentary deposits throughout Death Valley. Critical to this improved stratigraphy are correlated or radiometrically-dated tephra beds and tuffs that range in age from N3.58 Ma to b1.1 ka. These tephra beds and tuffs establish relations among the Upper Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene sedimentary deposits at Furnace Creek basin, Nova basin, Ubehebe–Lake Rogers basin, Copper Canyon, Artists Drive, Kit Fox Hills, and Confidence Hills. New geologic formations have been described in the Confidence Hills and at Mormon Point. This new geochronology also establishes maximum and minimum ages for Quaternary alluvial fans and Lake Manly deposits. Facies associated with the tephra beds show that ~3.3 Ma the Furnace Creek basin was a northwest–southeast-trending lake flanked by alluvial fans. This paleolake extended from the Furnace Creek to Ubehebe. Based on the new stratigraphy, the Death Valley fault system can be divided into four main fault zones: the dextral, Quaternary-age Northern Death Valley fault zone; the dextral, pre-Quaternary Furnace Creek fault zone; the oblique–normal Black Mountains fault zone; and the dextral Southern Death Valley fault zone. -
Mineral Resources and Mineral Resource Potential of the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas Inyo County, California
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Mineral resources and mineral resource potential of the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas Inyo County, California Chester T. Wrucke, Sherman P. Marsh, Gary L. Raines, R. Scott Werschky, Richard J. Blakely, and Donald B. Hoover U.S. Geological Survey and Edward L. McHugh, Clay ton M. Rumsey, Richard S. Gaps, and J. Douglas Causey U.S. Bureau of Mines U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-560 Prepared by U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines for U.S. Bureau of Land Management This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards and stratigraphic nomenclature. 1984 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Mineral resources and mineral resource potential of the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas Inyo County, California by Chester T. Wrucke, Sherman P. Marsh, Gary L. Raines, R. Scott Werschky, Richard J. Blakely, and Donald B. Hoover U.S. Geological Survey and Edward L. McHugh, Clayton M. Rumsey, Richard S. Gaps, and J. Douglas Causey U.S. Bureau of Mines U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-560 This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards and stratigraphic nomenclature. 1984 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate 1. Mineral resource potential map of the Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas, Inyo County, California................................ In pocket Figure 1. Map showing location of Saline Valley and Lower Saline Wilderness Study Areas, California.............. 39 2. -
Interest and the Panamint Shoshone (E.G., Voegelin 1938; Zigmond 1938; and Kelly 1934)
109 VyI. NOTES ON BOUNDARIES AND CULTURE OF THE PANAMINT SHOSHONE AND OWENS VALLEY PAIUTE * Gordon L. Grosscup Boundary of the Panamint The Panamint Shoshone, also referred to as the Panamint, Koso (Coso) and Shoshone of eastern California, lived in that portion of the Basin and Range Province which extends from the Sierra Nevadas on the west to the Amargosa Desert of eastern Nevada on the east, and from Owens Valley and Fish Lake Valley in the north to an ill- defined boundary in the south shared with Southern Paiute groups. These boundaries will be discussed below. Previous attempts to define the Panamint Shoshone boundary have been made by Kroeber (1925), Steward (1933, 1937, 1938, 1939 and 1941) and Driver (1937). Others, who have worked with some of the groups which border the Panamint Shoshone, have something to say about the common boundary between the group of their special interest and the Panamint Shoshone (e.g., Voegelin 1938; Zigmond 1938; and Kelly 1934). Kroeber (1925: 589-560) wrote: "The territory of the westernmost member of this group [the Shoshone], our Koso, who form as it were the head of a serpent that curves across the map for 1, 500 miles, is one of the largest of any Californian people. It was also perhaps the most thinly populated, and one of the least defined. If there were boundaries, they are not known. To the west the crest of the Sierra has been assumed as the limit of the Koso toward the Tubatulabal. On the north were the eastern Mono of Owens River. -
Birds of the California Desert
BIRDS OF THE CALIFORNIA DESERT A. Sidney England and William F. Laudenslayer, Jr. i INTRODUCTION i \ 1 The term, "California desert", as used herein, refers to a politically defined region, most of i which is included in the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) designated by the Federal Land ; and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). Of the 25 million acres in the CDCA, about one-half are i public lands, most of which are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) according to the "980 P California Desert Conservation Area Plan mandated by FLPMA. The California desert encompasses those portions of the Great Basin Desert (east of the White and lnyo Mountains and A south of the California-Nevada border), the Mojave Desert, and the Colorado Desert which occur " within California; it does not include areas of riparian, aquatic, urban, and agricultural habitats . adjacent to the Colorado River. (Also see chapters on Geology by Norris and Bioclimatology by E3irdsI4 are the most conspicuous vertebrates found in the California deserts. Records exist for at least 425 species (Garrett and Dunn 1981) from 18 orders and 55 families. These counts far exceed those for mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and they are similar to totals for the entire state -- 542 species from 20 orders and 65 families (Laudenslayer and Grenfell 1983). These figures may seem surprisingly similar considering the harsh, arid climates often believed characteristic of I desert environments. However, habiiats found in the California desert range from open water and h marshes at the Salton Sea to pinyon-juniper woodland and limber pinelbristlecone pine forests on a few mountain ranges. -
Inferences Regarding Aboriginal Hunting Behavior in the Saline Valley, Inyo County, California
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 2, No. I, pp. 60-79(1980). Inferences Regarding Aboriginal Hunting Behavior in the Saline Valley, Inyo County, California RICHARD A. BROOK HE documented use of stone "hunting a member of the 1861 Boundary Survey Party Tblinds" behind which marksmen hid them reconnoitering the Death Valley region. The selves "ve'/7//-6'o?m-e"i (Baillie-Grohman 1884: chronicler observed: 168) waiting for sheep to be driven along trails, can be found in the writings of a number of . curious structures ... on the tops of early historians (Baillie-Grohman 1884; round bald hills, a short distance to the Spears 1892; Muir 1901; Bailey 1940). Recent northwest of the springs, being low walls of archaeological discoveries of rock features loose stones curved in the shape of a demi lune, about ten feet in length and about believed to be hunting blinds at the Upper three feet high . , . , There were twenty or Warm Springs (Fig. I) in Saline Valley, Inyo thirty of them [Woodward 1961:49], County, California, provide a basis to substan tiate, build upon, and evaluate these observa This paper discusses a series of 60 such piled- tions and the ethnographic descriptions of up boulder features recorded within a I km.^ hunting in the Great Basin (Steward 1933, area at Upper Warm Springs (Fig. 2). 1938, 1941; Driver 1937; Voegelin 1938; The same chronicler offered some tentative Stewart 1941). An examination of these explanations as to their function: features, their location, orientation, and asso ciations in -
Quaternary Fault and Fold Database of the United States
Jump to Navigation Quaternary Fault and Fold Database of the United States As of January 12, 2017, the USGS maintains a limited number of metadata fields that characterize the Quaternary faults and folds of the United States. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to the interactive fault map. Northern Death Valley fault zone, Kit Fox Hills section (Class A) No. 141c Last Review Date: 2002-03-04 Compiled in cooperation with the California Geological Survey citation for this record: Machette, M.N., and Klinger, R.E., compilers, 2002, Fault number 141c, Northern Death Valley fault zone, Kit Fox Hills section, in Quaternary fault and fold database of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey website, https://earthquakes.usgs.gov/hazards/qfaults, accessed 12/14/2020 02:05 PM. Synopsis General: The Northern Death Valley fault zone is marked by prominent Quaternary dextral-slip faults that are more-or-less coincident with (or east of) the axis of northern Death Valley. The fault zone is part of the much longer Death Valley fault system that extends from Fish Lake Valley (NV) in the north to past the Garlock fault [69] on the south. The Northern Death Valley fault zone represents a southward extension of the Fish Lake Valley fault zone [49] (and vice versa), although they show opposing uplift directions and (presumably) different normal-dip directions. Detailed studies of offset alluvial fans along the Grapevine Detailed studies of offset alluvial fans along the Grapevine Mountains suggest dextral-slip rates are 3-6 mm/yr depending on what time slice your are looking at in the Holocene to late Quaternary. -
Day Motion of the Sierra Nevada Block and Some Tectonic Implications for the Basin and Range Province, North American Cordillera
TECTONICS, VOL. 19, NO. 1, PAGES 1-24 FEBRUARY 2000 Present-day motion of the Sierra Nevada block and some tectonic implications for the Basin and Range province, North American Cordillera TimothyH. Dixon,• MeghanMiller, 2 FredericFarina, • Hongzhi Wang • and Daniel Johnson 2 Abstract. Global Positioning System (GPS) data from some continentalareas appear to behave like oceanic five sites on the stable interior of the Sierra Nevada block lithospherein one important respect:deformation is are inverted to describeits angular velocity relative to occasionallyconcentrated in narrow fault zones that stableNorth America. The velocity data for the five sites accommodaterelative motion betweenrigid blocks. The fit the rigid block model with rms misfits of 0.3 mm/yr Sierra Nevada block in the western United States is (north) and 0.8 mm/yr (east), smaller than independently probablya good exampleof a rigid continentalblock estimateddata uncertainty,indicating that the rigid block [Wright,1976]. Seismicityaround its marginsdelineates model is appropriate. The new Euler vector, 17.0øN, an aseismicregion east of the SanAndreas fault and west 137.3øW, rotation rate 0.28 degreesper million years, of the Basin and Range extensionalprovince (Figure 1). predictsthat the block is translatingto the northwest, However,a rigoroustest of the rigidity of this blockhas nearly parallel to the plate motion direction, at 13-14 neverbeen performed (nor, to ourknowledge, for anyother mm/yr, fasterthan previous estimates. Using the predicted continentalblock or microplate). Perhapsthe Sierra Sierra Nevada block velocity as a kinematic boundary Nevadablock is not rigid at all, and the absenceof condition and GPS, VLBI and other data from the interior seismicityindicates a weak block undergoingdiffuse and margins of the Basin and Range, we estimatethe aseismic deformation, or strain accumulation on a few velocitiesof some major boundary zone faults. -
Introduction
1 INTRODUCTION This monograph is an introductory descriptive grammar of Tlimpisa Shoshone, meant to provide both layman and specialist with a basic understanding of how the language works as a linguistic system. In this sense, it is intended to be a "nuts and bolts" grammar with lots of examples illustrating the most important grammatical elements and processes in the language. 1 Tlimpisa Shoshone is a dialect of the language most often called Panamint in the technical literature (e.g., Freeze and Iannucci 1979, Henshaw 1883, Kroeber 1939, Lamb 1958a and 1964, McLaughlin 1987, Miller 1984) . The language is also known as Panamint Shoshone (Fowler and Fowler 1971, Merriam 1904, Miller et al. 1971), Koso (= Coso) or Koso Shoshone (Kroeber 1925, Lamb 1958a), and simply Shoshone (Steward 1938). Panamint and two other closely related languages, Shoshone proper and Comanche, comprise the Central Numic branch of the Numic subfamily of the northern division of the uto-Aztecan family of American Indian languages (see Lamb 1964, Miller 1984, Kaufman and Campbell 1981). Speakers of uto-Aztecan languages occupied more territory in aboriginal America than any other group. More than 30 Uto-Aztecan languages were spoken over a vast area stretching from the Salmon River in central Idaho south through the Great Basin and peripheral areas into the Southwest and through northern and central Mexico. Colonies of Aztecan speakers were also scattered further south into Central America. At the time of 1 UTO-AZTECAN FAMILY Northern Division NUMlC Central Numic -
DOCKETED 1516 Ninth Street 09-RENEW EO-1 Sacramento, CA 95814-5512 TN 75171 [email protected] FEB 23 2015
PO Box 63 Shoshone, CA 92384 760.852.4339 www.amargosaconservancy.org February 23, 2015 California Energy Commission California Energy Commission Dockets Office, MS-4 Docket No. 09-RENEW EO-01 DOCKETED 1516 Ninth Street 09-RENEW EO-1 Sacramento, CA 95814-5512 TN 75171 [email protected] FEB 23 2015 Re: The DRECP and the Amargosa Watershed On behalf of the members and Board of Directors of the Amargosa Conservancy, please accept our comments herein on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Please refer to our second comment letter, dated February 23, 2015, for our comments on National Conservation Lands and Special Recreation Management Areas. Please also refer to the letter from Kevin Emmerich and Laura Cunningham, dated January 30, 2015, which the Amargosa Conservancy is signatory to. This letter details the need for a new program alternative in the DRECP which properly evaluates rooftop solar. To sum the key points of this letter: No groundwater pumping should be permissible in the Amargosa Watershed, including Charleston View, Silurian Valley, and Stewart Valley. Such activities would cause direct mortality of endangered species such as the Amargosa vole. USFWS take permits should be required for any groundwater pumping, and such permits should not be issued given the precarious conservation status of the vole. No mitigation can adequately compensate the ecosystem for the damage done by groundwater withdrawal. Retirement of water rights is not sufficient, and monitoring and triggering schemes are completely inadequate to protect the resources of the Amargosa Wild and Scenic River. Due to numerous biological, cultural, and social resource conflicts, Charleston View is not an appropriate place for utility-scale solar, should not be designated as a Development Focus Area (DFA). -
The California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 As Amended
the California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 as amended U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Desert District Riverside, California the California Desert CONSERVATION AREA PLAN 1980 as Amended IN REPLY REFER TO United States Department of the Interior BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT STATE OFFICE Federal Office Building 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, California 95825 Dear Reader: Thank you.You and many other interested citizens like you have made this California Desert Conservation Area Plan. It was conceived of your interests and concerns, born into law through your elected representatives, molded by your direct personal involvement, matured and refined through public conflict, interaction, and compromise, and completed as a result of your review, comment and advice. It is a good plan. You have reason to be proud. Perhaps, as individuals, we may say, “This is not exactly the plan I would like,” but together we can say, “This is a plan we can agree on, it is fair, and it is possible.” This is the most important part of all, because this Plan is only a beginning. A plan is a piece of paper-what counts is what happens on the ground. The California Desert Plan encompasses a tremendous area and many different resources and uses. The decisions in the Plan are major and important, but they are only general guides to site—specific actions. The job ahead of us now involves three tasks: —Site-specific plans, such as grazing allotment management plans or vehicle route designation; —On-the-ground actions, such as granting mineral leases, developing water sources for wildlife, building fences for livestock pastures or for protecting petroglyphs; and —Keeping people informed of and involved in putting the Plan to work on the ground, and in changing the Plan to meet future needs.