Pre-Pliocene Structural Geology and Structural Evolution of the Northern Los Angeles Basin
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Craig L. Schneider for the degree of Master of Science in Geology presentedon March 8. 1994. Title: Pre-Pliocene Structural Geology and Structural Evolution of the Northern Los Angeles Basin. Southern California Redacted for Privacy Abstract approved: Robert S/Yeats Detailed subsurface structure contour maps and cross sections have shown the northern Los Angeles basin to be underlain by a south facing monocline that is complicated by secondary faults and folds. The monocline forms a structural shelf that marks the northern boundary of the Los Angeles central trough. The monocline and associated structures are called the Northern Los Angeles shelf. Isopach maps show that during the Miocene, the predominant structural style was extension. Thick accumulations of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, controlled by normal faults, hada very different depositional pattern than during the Pliocene. At approximately the beginning of the Pliocene extension changed to compression resulting in the reactivation of the Miocene normal faults in a reverse sense and the beginning of the formation of the monocline and secondary structures. Thick growth sequences were deposited to the south of the growing monocline toward the present day Los Angeles central trough. Fault-bend and fault-propagation fold models are inadmissible solutions to explain the growth of the monocline. A basement-involved shear model may explain some of the details of the secondary structures. Analysis of the Pliocene growth strata shows that the monocline and secondary structures, the South Salt Lake, the East Beverly Hills, and the Las Cienegas anticlines, all began to form near the beginning of the Pliocene. All of the secondary structures became inactive prior to the Upper Pico during the Late Pliocene. Thick accumulations of Upper Pico growth strata attest to continued monoclinal folding after the secondary structures became inactive. The growth strata record both the structural growth and the shortening associated with growth and therefore allow the dip of the monocline causing fault or shear zone (the Monocline fault) to be calculated. In the East Beverly Hills area, the growth strata yield a dip of 61°. At Las Cienegas the dip of the Monocline fault is 62°. These dips are maximum values based on the assumption the growth strata record all shortening. The fault slip rates for the Monocline fault are similar in both areas, 1.1-1.2 mm/yr in the East Beverly Hills and 1.3-1.5 mm/yr. in Las Cienegas. The resulting horizontal convergence rates are also similar, .5-.6 mm/yr and .6-.7 mm/yr respectively. The Quaternary marine gravels have been deformed into a broad east-west trending fold, the Wilshire arch. Elastic and non-elastic methods of modeling the blind fault (Wilshire fault), over which the deformation occurred, yield much greater shortening rates than for the Pliocene. The non-elastic method involves modeling the arch as a fault-bend fold. This model predicts a 15° north-dipping thrust with a slip rate of 1.5-1.9 mm/yr and a horizontal shortening rate of 1.4-1.8 mm/yr. The elastic method involves matching the observed deformation to that produced on the free surface by slip on a fault in an elastic half-space. The elastic dislocation model predicts a right-lateral reverse slip solution with an oblique-slip rate of 2.6-3.3 mm/yr. This solution yields a horizontal shortening rate of 1.4-1.8 mm/yr. These higher shortening rates suggest that there was a marked change in tectonic style at the end of the Pliocene from high-angle faulting and tectonic subsidence to shallow faulting and uplift. Pre-Pliocene Structural Geology and Structural Evolution of the Northern Los Angeles Basin, Southern California by Craig L. Schneider A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fullfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Completed March 8, 1994 Commencement June, 1994 APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Professor of Geology in charge of m4or Redacted for Privacy department ofeosciences Redacted for Privacy Dean of Graduate Sch Date thesis is presented March 8. 1994 Typed by Craig L. Schneider for Craig L. Schneider ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have been instrumental to the completion of this work. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Unocal Corporation contributed both the primary data set, over 400 oil well files, and the financial support for reproduction of the data. I would like to thank Linda Thurn, Bill Bart ling, and Wayne Tobiasz at Chevron and Larry Greene and Charles Roberts at Unocal for their assistance in obtaining oil well data and for gathering assorted bits of data whenever it was crucial. I would also like to thank Gregg Blake of Unocal for his AAPG summary of the biostratigraphy of the Los Angeles basin and for assisting in the release of paleontologic data which proved invaluable to the study. Financial support for the project was provided by both, the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP), Contract No. 14-08-0001-G1967, administered by the United States Geological Survey and the Southern California Earthquake Center (National Science Foundation). I thank my coworkers. All aspects of the project have been collaborative between myself, Cheryl Hummon, Bob Yeats my advisor, Gary Huftile my advisor and principal resource while Bob was on sabbatical, and Hiro Tsutsumi. Ross Stein, of the United States Geological Survey, enthusiastically instructed me on the method of elastic dislocation modeling as well as provided insightful discussion on the structure of the earth's crust and its response to stress. My understanding of elastic modeling was also aided by discussions with Geoff King. Wayne Narr, at Chevron, introduced me to an exciting new hypothesis describing fault and fold interaction within crystalline rocks. Tom Wright, whose lucid description of the structure of the Los Angeles basin has proved a valued reference, has been a part of the discussion since the beginning of the project. I would also like to thank my friends and fellow students, Rene La Berge, Steve Moothart (Moot), Nickoli Greenstone, Stor Nelson, In-Chang Ryu, Daniel la Assail, Chris Goldfinger, Jeff Templeton, Dave Maher, Ken Bevis, Erwin Tome, Brian Desmarais, Christian Braudrick, Jennifer Crum, Kerry Mammone, Chuck Payne, and Peter Powers who have expanded my education in innumerable ways. Lastly and most important - To my family who have supported me through many years of school, I thank you. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Structural Setting 4 Newport-Inglewood fault zone 4 Santa Monica fault system 5 North Los Angeles shelf 6 Stratigraphy 6 Lithostratigraphy 6 Biostratigraphy 9 Growth Strata 12 MIOCENE EXTENSION 15 The San Vicente fault 15 The Las Cienegas fault 16 PLIOCENE COMPRESSION 18 The San Vicente fault 18 The South Salt Lake anticline 20 The East Beverly Hills anticline 20 The Las Cienegas fault 22 Summary 23 STRUCTURAL KINEMATICS 24 Key Structural Observations 24 Problems with Classical Methods 24 Fault-Bend Fold Model 25 Fault-Propagation Fold Model 27 Basement Shear Deformation 27 GROWTH STRATA ANALYSIS 32 Introduction 32 East Beverly Hills area 34 Structural Observations 34 Growth Calculations 36 Shortening 37 Fault Dip 39 Las Cienegas area 42 Structural Observations 42 Growth Calculations 42 Shortening Calculations 44 Fault Dip Calculations 44 Fault Slip and Shortening Rates 44 Summary 45 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY 50 APPENDIX 56 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Location map of the study area showing major tectonic provinces 2 and faults. 2. Location map of geographic features within the study area. 3 3. Lithostratigraphic column of the units within the study area. 7 4. Biostratigraphic column for units within the northern Los Angeles basin. 11 5. Effect of sedimentation rate vs. growth rate on resultant growth strata 13 geometry. 6. Parameters for calculating the vertical component of folding (Growth) 14 from growth sediments. 7. Schematic unbalanced cross-section illustrating the evolution of the 21 South Salt Lake anticline by reactivation of the San Vicente fault. 8. Comparison of growth strata geometry. 26 9. Four types of folding that could result from a fault-fault-axial surface 28 (a-a') triple junction. 10. Kinematic development of a footwall-shear, fault-bend fold anticline 29 (Narr, 1990). 11. Deformational geometry of the basement surface. 31 12. Calculation of shortening and fault dip. 33 13. Cross section through the East Beverly Hills area, showing the position 35 of the pin lines used in the shortening calculations. 14. Cumulative shortening vs. cumulative relative subsidence for the East 41 Beverly Hills and Las Cienegas areas. 15. Cross section through the Las Cienegas area, showing the position 43 of the pin lines used in the shortening calculations. 16. Relative timing of structures in the northern Los Angeles basin. 47 A.1. Structure contours and dip data showing deformation of the base of 57 Quaternary marine gravels (Hummon, 1994). A.2. Fault-bend fold model of the Wilshire arch. 59 A.3. Dislocation parameters used in the elastic dislocation models. 61 A.4. Effect of dislocation burial depth on free surface deformation. 62 A.5. Effect of dislocation width on free surface deformation. 62 A.6. Minimum and maximum two dimensional elastic dislocation models 63 of the Wilshire fault. A.7. Three dimensional elastic dislocation model for the same fault geometry65 as the 2D maximum slip solution shown in Figure A.6. A.8. Three dimensional elastic dislocation model of the Wilshire arch using 67 a right-lateral strike slip component. A.9. Best fit three dimensional elastic dislocation model of the Wilshire arch.68 A.10.Comparison of elastic and non-elastic solutions. 70 A.11.Location and focal mechanism of the possible earthquake on the 72 Wilshire fault.