Strain Accumulation Versus Strain Release: A Paleoseismic Transect across the Northern Great Basin

大盆地省是世界上最大、暴露程度最高、最容易接近的大陆伸展区，占北美-太平洋板块边界运动的25%。由其他机构操作的全球定位卫星（GPS）测量已开始提供整个盆地的应变积累情况。正是应力释放的过程导致了地震的结构、地貌和时空模式，从而定义了我们今天所观察到的盆地和山脉。应变积累和应变释放的测量是了解盆地和岭省变形动力学和演化的必要条件。新构造和古地震技术正被应用于活动断层，这些断层连接着与现有GPS样带几乎平行的主要山麓，并毗邻内华达州的I-80走廊。古地震研究的目的是量化和比较晚第四纪断层位移的历史和演变与今天观察到的应变积累模式。

Wesnousky0086667The Great Basin province is the largest, best-exposed, and most accessible region of continental extension in the world and accounts for up to 25% of the motion across the North American - Pacfic plate boundary. Global Positioning Satellite GPS measurements operated by others are beginning to provide a picture of strain accumulation across the Basin. It is the process of strain release that results in the structure, physiography, and the spatial and temporal pattern of earthquakes that define the Basin and Range as we observe it today. Measures of both strain accumulation and strain release are required to understand the dynamics and evolution of deformation in the Basin and Range province. Neotectonic and paleoseismic techniques are being applied to active faults that bound major mountain fronts that sit subparallel to the existing GPS transects and adjacent to the I-80 corridor of Nevada. The paleoseismic studies are designed to quantify and compare the history and evolution of fault displacement through the late Quaternary to the pattern of strain accumulation that is being observed today.