Geophysical Investigations of Structures Within Southern Fish Lake Valley, Western Great Basin
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GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SOUTHERN FISH LAKE VALLEY, WESTERN GREAT BASIN, CALIFORNIA by Kyle A. McBride APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ Dr. John F. Ferguson, Chair ___________________________________________ Dr. Tom H. Brikowski ___________________________________________ Dr. John S. Oldow Copyright 2016 Kyle A. McBride All Rights Reserved I dedicate this thesis to my grandfather, Bill McMullin, with whom I would have enjoyed to have the time to discuss geology and the earth sciences. GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SOUTHERN FISH LAKE VALLEY, WESTERN GREAT BASIN, CALIFORNIA by KYLE A. MCBRIDE, BS, BBA THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN GEOSCIENCES THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS December 2016 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. John Ferguson for his guidance and support throughout the duration of this project; our numerous conversations and his provided insights being crucial for the development of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Ferguson for the opportunities extended to me while at UT Dallas, such as SAGE and the Denbury gravity surveys. I also want to thank Dr. John Geissman for his encouragement and mentoring during my time at UT Dallas. I want to thank my committee members for taking the time to review and comment on this document, and of course, I want to thank my wife, Denise, and my family, for their patience and support. November 2016 v GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SOUTHERN FISH LAKE VALLEY, WESTERN GREAT BASIN, CALIFORNIA Publication No. ___________________ Kyle A. McBride, MS The University of Texas at Dallas, 2016 ABSTRACT Supervising Professor: John F. Ferguson, PhD Growth of the Cucomungo Canyon restraining bend along the Fish Lake Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone has resulted in localized uplift at the southern end of Fish Lake Valley in eastern California. This thesis is part of an integrated study by the Miles Geoscience Center to develop a model of this recent deformation. This study focuses on the southernmost section of Fish Lake Valley, where Paleozoic sedimentary rocks are juxtaposed with Cenozoic sediments on multiple faulted boundaries. Structural constraints are poorly known as the faults are locally obscured by Quaternary alluvial deposits of various ages. A near surface geophysical survey utilizing high-resolution seismic refraction and microGal gravity measurements was done to explore the subsurface beneath the alluvium. Forward models were created to identify faults and ascertain vertical offsets and orientations. The geophysical models indicate a zone of extensional deformation north of the restraining bend. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 GEOLOGIC SETTING ...........................................................................................3 2.1 Geologic Unit Descriptions......................................................................................6 CHAPTER 3 GEOPHYSICAL METHODS ...............................................................................10 3.1 Seismic Refraction .................................................................................................10 3.2 Gravity ...................................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 4 PROFILE DESCRIPTIONS ..................................................................................17 4.1 Eureka Valley Road Profile ...................................................................................18 4.2 Fish Lake Valley Transect .....................................................................................18 4.3 Horse Thief Canyon Profile ...................................................................................19 4.4 Granite Arroyo Survey ...........................................................................................21 CHAPTER 5 PROFILE CONSTRUCTION ...............................................................................22 5.1 Physical Properties .................................................................................................22 CHAPTER 6 GEOPHYSICAL MODELS ..................................................................................31 6.1 Eureka Valley Road Profile ...................................................................................31 6.2 Fish Lake Valley Transect .....................................................................................35 vii 6.3 Horse Thief Canyon Profile ...................................................................................39 CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................42 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................44 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................45 VITA viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Map showing regional features along the Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault system. Major fault traces are shown in black. Physiographic locations are labeled in black and major fault systems are labeled in red. SP – Silver Peak Range, FLV – Fish Lake Valley, PM – Palmetto Mountains, WM – White Mountains, OV– Owens Valley, SM – Sylvania Mountains, DSV – Deep Springs Valley, EV – Eureka Valley, LCR – Last Chance Range, DV– Death Valley, CCRB – Cucomungo Canyon restraining bend, FLVFZ – Fish Lake Valley fault zone, SMFS – Sylvania Mountain fault system, OV- WMFZ– Owens Valley–White Mountains fault zone, PMFS – Palmetto Mountain fault system, DV-FCFS– Death Valley–Furnace Creek fault system. ...........................4 Figure 2.2 Map showing study location and adjacent features. Seismic refraction profile locations are shown in white in the satellite image on the right side of the figure, the location of the yellow box. Major fault traces are shown in black on the left side of the figure. Physiographic locations are labeled black and major fault locations in red. SP – Silver Peak Range, FLV – Fish Lake Valley, PM – Palmetto Mountains, SM – Sylvania Mountains, DSV – Deep Springs Valley, EV – Eureka Valley, LCR – Last Chance Range, HTH – Horse Thief Hills, CCRB – Cucomungo Canyon restraining bend, FC-FLVF – Furnace Creek and Fish Lake Valley faults, SF – Sylvania Mountain fault system, PMF – Palmetto Mountain fault system. Modified from Oldow and Geissman (2013) .........................................................................................5 Figure 2.3 Generalized geologic map of the southern edge of FLV just west of Willow Wash with geophysical survey locations indicated in the dashed black lines which are discussed in Chapter 4. This map is in the location specified by the gold box in Figure 2.1. ......................................................................................................................9 Figure 3.1 An example of seismic traces that have been gained. The first arrivals are marked with x’s and the airwave with the solid line. The selected first arrivals, shown with the blue x’s, form the traveltime curves. Adapted from Nisengard et al., 2008 ......... 12 Figure 3.2 Example of a simple two layer refraction model. A) Two layer model with computed traveltime curves plotted with the first arrivals determined from the observed seismic traces; B) Two layer model depicting ray path motion of waves created at the left shot point; C) Two layer model with wavefront propagation from the left shot point with refracted waves. Modified from Nisengard et al., 2008 .............................................13 ix Figure 4.1 Geologic Map with EVRP and FLVT profile locations. Unit descriptions can be viewed in Figure 2.2. ...................................................................................................19 Figure 4.2 Geologic map with the HTCP profile location ............................................................20 Figure 4.3 Location of the seismic refraction survey performed to determine the P-wave velocity of the crushed quartz monzonite along the DVFCFZ ..................................................20 Figure 5.1 Map of the 28 gravity stations used for Nettleton density analysis of the Pz/P metasediments shown in the top of the figure. Results of the analysis are shown in the chart on the bottom of the figure and the minimum slope 0.001798 mGal/m is associated with a density of 2500 kg/m3. .....................................................................27 Figure 5.2 Map of the 46 gravity stations used for Nettleton density analysis of unit Qa2 is shown in the top of the figure. Results of the analysis are shown in the chart on the bottom of the figure and the minimum slope 0.000596 mGal/m