REU: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: The Relationship between Strike-Slip and Detachment Faulting in Regional Extension, Southern Nevada

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This work will develop a generalized three-dimensional model for the interaction of normal and strike-slip faults during continental extension. The relationship between transverse structures (strike-slip faults) and detachment (normal) faults in southern Nevada will be examined in detail, and a temporal and structural history will be established. To accomplish this, an integrated study will be conducted that involves geologic mapping, geochronology, and seismic reflection profiling across both detachment and strike-slip faults. This is a collaborative proposal with 9018301 which will concentrate on the seismic aspects. Three classes of models will be tested: strike-slip faults ar crust-penetrating, fundamental first order structures and normal faults are secondary; detachment faults are first-order structures and strike-slip faults are secondary transfer faults in the shallow crust; and, strike-slip and normal faults are synchronous and allow extension to occur by the horizontal translation of crustal blocks. The results of this study will provide fundamental three-dimensional information on the mechanisms by which continental crust may extend, and as such have wide-reaching tectonic importance.