Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic to Recent Fault Slip Distribution in the Central Walker Lane Belt, Western Nevada

该项目将利用野外测绘、构造地貌学、古地震学、热年代学和地质年代学的综合方法，支持对步行者巷带中部南部板内断层系统的动态进行调查，该系统被称为米纳偏转。Mina偏转内的断层定义了一个区域规模的释放弯曲，将滑动从东加州剪切带转移到步行者车道带。东加州剪切带和步行者车道带横跨在盆地和山脉省东部的主要东西向伸展和太平洋-北美板块边界西部的主要沿沿着NW向剪切之间的边界。伸展和横向剪切之间的相互作用导致了一系列复杂的断层的发展，这些断层可容纳板内应变。这项研究在很大程度上是由正在进行的大地测量调查所激发的，这些调查是关于东加州剪切带和步行者车道带现今应变积累的大小和应变分布的模式。鉴于这些大地测量对应变积累的限制，现在是时候提高我们对晚新生代至近代应变释放的时空模式的认识了。这两个数据集将提供重要的约束地球动力学假说提出的东加州剪切带和步行者车道带的演变。准确描述东加州剪切带和步行者巷带内的时空应变分布，对于理解太平洋和北美板块之间相互作用引起的更广泛的板内变形区域的构造过程至关重要。

This project will support the investigation of the dynamics of a system of intraplate faults in the southern part of the central Walker Lane belt, known as the Mina deflection, using an integrated approach of field mapping, tectonic geomorphology, paleoseismology, thermochronology, and geochronology. Faults within the Mina deflection define a regional-scale releasing bend that transfers slip from the Eastern California Shear Zone to the Walker Lane Belt. The Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt straddle the boundary between dominantly east-west extension in the Basin and Range province to the east and dominantly NW-shear along the Pacific-North American plate boundary to the west. The interaction between extension and transcurrent shear has resulted in the development of a complex array of faults that accommodate intraplate strain.The research is motivated in large part by ongoing geodetic investigations on the magnitude of present-day strain accumulation and pattern of strain distribution across the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt. In light of these geodetic constraints on strain accumulation, it is timely to improve our understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of strain release during late Cenozoic to Recent times. The two data sets will provide important constraints on geodynamic hypotheses proposed for the evolution of the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt. An accurate characterization of the temporal and spatial strain distribution within the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane Belt is crucial for understanding tectonic processes over a much broader area of intraplate deformation associated with the interaction between the Pacific and North American plates.