Timing, Magnitude of Displacement, and Implications of a Major Intrabatholithic Crustal Shear Zone in Eastern California and Western Nevada

美国西南部中生代大陆边缘是主要的挤压区，包括地体向活动边缘的逆冲和增生。然而，对造山带平行走滑断裂的程度约束较差。最近的地层和构造数据表明，内华达山脉早白垩世时期存在一条主要的（500公里位移）隐蔽的底石器内断层。如果得到证实，这一发现将产生深远的影响，包括从根本上修改侏罗纪和更早的古地理和西科迪勒拉构造的必要性。该项目将严格测试该新模型的几个具体预测，以努力建立该模型的有效性，并探索其对北美西部中生代构造解释的影响。

The Mesozoic continental margin of the southwestern United States was the site of major compression involving overthrusting and accretion of terranes to the active margin. However, the extent of Orogen-parallel strike-slip faulting is poorly constrained. Recent stratigraphic and structural data suggests the presence of a major (500 km displacement) cryptic intrabatholithic fault of Early Cretaceous age in the Sierra Nevada. If confirmed, this discovery will have far reaching consequences, including the necessity to radically revise Jurassic and earlier paleogeography and tectonics of the western Cordillera. This project will critically test several specific predictions of this new model in an effort to establish the model's validity and to explore its impact on tectonic interpretations of the Mesozoic of western North America.