PLIOCENE KINEMATIC REORGANIZATION, FAULT GEOMETRY, BASIN EVOLUTION, AND DISPLACEMENT BUDGET ALONG THE FURNACE CREEK – FISH LAKE VALLEY FAULT ZONE, EASTERN CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN NEVADA by Nicholas James Mueller APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ John F. Ferguson, Chair ___________________________________________ John W. Geissman ___________________________________________ Prabin Shilpakar ___________________________________________ Mortaza Pirouz Copyright 2019 Nicholas James Mueller All Rights Reserved PLIOCENE KINEMATIC REORGANIZATION, FAULT GEOMETRY, BASIN EVOLUTION, AND DISPLACEMENT BUDGET ALONG THE FURNACE CREEK – FISH LAKE VALLEY FAULT ZONE, EASTERN CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN NEVADA by NICHOLAS JAMES MUELLER, BS DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN GEOSCIENCES THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS May 2019 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank a previous advisor, Dr. John Oldow, for his guidance and support throughout much of this research project. I also want to thank my official committee members, Dr. John Ferguson, Dr. John Geissman, Dr. Prabin Shilpakar, and Dr. Mortaza Pirouz for helping me throughout the home stretch of completing this dissertation. Special thanks to Dr. Scott Kerstetter, Dr. David Katopody, Dr. Jeff Dunham, Calvin Nix, and Sarah Dunn for lively conversations about the geology of western Nevada. Finally, I would like to thank the Ellison Miles Center for Geological Field Studies team members Brent Cland, Lauren Landreneau, Kyle McBride, Melissa Ng, August Ridde, Sarah Sokol, and Amy Webber for their help in the field, their continued feedback, and advice. This research was funded by an award from the National Science Foundation, Division of Earth Sciences, to Dr. John Oldow and Dr. John Geissman, and the Ellison Miles Center for Geological Field Research, and scholarships from Pioneer Natural Resources. December 2018 iv PLIOCENE KINEMATIC REORGANIZATION, FAULT GEOMETRY, BASIN EVOLUTION, AND DISPLACEMENT BUDGET ALONG THE FURNACE CREEK – FISH LAKE VALLEY FAULT ZONE, EASTERN CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN NEVADA Nicholas James Mueller, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2019 Principal Supervising Professor: John S. Oldow (2011 – 2017); John Ferguson (2018) The active northwest-striking Furnace Creek – Fish Lake Valley fault system of eastern California and western Nevada records a protracted history of displacement that has accumulated 45-50 km of right-lateral offset since inception of motion in the middle Miocene. Geologic mapping and 40Ar/39Ar geochronologic data document that ~22 km of right-lateral offset occurred from ~11.6 – 4 Ma, at a long-term average rate of 2.9 mm/yr. A kinematic transition from wrench-dominated deformation to right-oblique transtensional deformation is recorded along the Furnace Creek – Fish Lake Valley fault zone beginning in the middle Pliocene, and has resulted in the remaining right-lateral displacement at a long-term average slip rate of 5.75 – 7 mm/yr. Both the total magnitude of right-lateral displacement and late Pleistocene slip rates are demonstrated to decrease from south to north along the Fish Lake Valley part of the fault zone and are related to displacement transfer onto kinematically linked fault systems. New geologic mapping, structural and stratigraphic analysis, and modeling of gravity data are used to determine the subsurface architecture of Fish Lake Valley and place constraints on the displacement budget for the region. Three-dimensional depth inversion of gravity data indicates that Fish Lake Valley is internally dissected by a system of faults that segments the subsurface v into multiple sub-basins with depths of ~1.8 to 3.0 km, filled with lower Miocene to Quaternary volcanic and sedimentary deposits. A grid of 2-dimensional forward gravity models, based on geologic mapping and subsurface data in northern Fish Lake Valley, reveals the internal distribution of basin filling deposits and allows for the estimation of Pliocene and younger displacement on basin bounding faults. Offsets markers mapped in the highlands and inferred in the subsurface indicate that 4 to 5.5 kilometers of vertical offset has accumulated on faults bounding and within southern and central Fish Lake Valley, and around 3.6 km of vertical offset has accrued along the Emigrant Peak fault zone and structures bounding northeastern Fish Lake Valley since the middle Pliocene. Around 2 to 3 km of right-lateral displacement has been transferred from the Fish Lake Valley fault zone to structures bounding northeastern Fish Lake Valley in the last 4 Ma. These results, combined with prior work in the area, indicate that of the 23-28 km of right-lateral displacement accumulated on the Fish Lake Valley fault zone since the mid-Pliocene, only ~10 km of displacement is transferred away to kinematically linked structures to the east of the Fish Lake Valley fault zone. The remaining displacement is likely transferred to the north and west via a horse-tail array of structures underlying northwestern Fish Lake Valley. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 PLIOCENE CHANGES IN KINEMATICS AND LONG-TERM GEOLOGIC SLIP RATES ALONG THE FURNACE CREEK – FISH LAKE VALLEY FAULT ZONE, CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA ......................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 APPENDIX..............................................................................................................46 CHAPTER 1 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................56 CHAPTER 2 FAULT GEOMETRY, BASIN EVOLUTION, AND DISPLACEMENT BUDGET ALONG THE FISH LAKE VALLEY FAULT ZONE, EASTERN CALIFORNIA – SOUTHWESTERN NEVADA .....................................................................................................65 CHAPTER 2 APPENDIX............................................................................................................131 CHAPTER 2 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................151 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................160 CURRICULUM VITAE ..............................................................................................................161 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Tectonic domains of the western Great Basin ..............................................................46 Figure 1.2 Shaded relief map of the northern Eastern California Shear Zone ...............................47 Figure 1.3 Generalized geologic map of the Cucomungo Canyon Restraining Bend (CCRB) .....48 Figure 1.4 Generalized geologic map of Willow Wash .................................................................49 Figure 1.5 Detailed geologic map of Willow Wash ......................................................................50 Figure 1.6 Geologic map of CCRB showing total magnitude of right-lateral offset .....................51 Figure 1.7 Geologic map of CCRB showing dextral offset along first generation strands ...........52 Figure 1.8 Simplified geologic map showing initiation of faulting constraints ............................53 Figure 1.9 Diagrams illustrating total displacement and slip-rate through time ............................54 Figure 1.10 Physiographic map of Eastern California Shear Zone transtension ages ...................55 Figure 2.1 Physiographic map of the northern Eastern California Shear Zone ...........................131 Figure 2.2 Shaded relief and fault map of the Fish Lake Valley region ......................................132 Figure 2.3 Geologic Map of the Fish Lake Valley region ...........................................................133 Figure 2.4 Stratigraphic correlation diagram for the Fish Lake Valley region ............................134 Figure 2.5 Locations of correlated well logs in northern Fish Lake Valley ................................135 Figure 2.6 Gravity station map of Fish Lake Valley and surrounding regions ............................136 Figure 2.7 Bouguer anomaly map of the Fish Lake Valley region ..............................................137 viii Figure 2.8 Residual complete Bouguer anomaly map of the Fish Lake Valley region ...............138 Figure 2.9 Depth to basement map of the Fish Lake Valley region ............................................139 Figure 2.10 Geologic map of northern Fish Lake Valley ............................................................140 Figure 2.11 Residual complete Bouguer anomaly map of northern Fish Lake Valley ................141 Figure 2.12 Depth to basement map of northern Fish Lake Valley .............................................142 Figure 2.13 Locations of 2-dimensional forward gravity models................................................143 Figure 2.14 Densities used for modeling 2-dimensional forward models ...................................144 Figure 2.15 Two-dimensional forward gravity