Plio-Pleistocene deposits adjacent to the Manix fault: implications for the history of the Mojave River and Transverse Ranges uplift
- Creators
- Nagy, Elizabeth A.
- Murray, Bruce
Abstract
A nearly continuous sedimentary record encompassing more than 2 million years of Plio-Pleistocene history is exposed by downcutting of the Mojave River adjacent to the Manix fault in the central Mojave Desert. This stratigraphic record, combined with local structural information, suggests that north-south crustal shortening took place adjacent to the Manix fault between about 1 and 0.5 Ma. Strike-slip deformation predominated along the Manix fault in the study area since 0.5-0.3 Ma and continues today. No evidence is found within the deposits for sustained eastward flow of the Mojave River system prior to 0.5 Ma, even though the Transverse Ranges uplift at San Bernardino Arch, the headwater region of the modern river system, has been estimated between 1.0 and 0.7 Ma. Understanding recent deformation in this region is especially warranted by the proximity and geometry between the Manix fault and a conspicuous gap in seismicity following the 1992 Landers earthquake sequence.
Additional Information
© 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. Received 11 October 1994; revised version accepted 20 June 1995. We wish to thank E. Hauksson and K. Hafner for providing preprints of submitted manuscripts, A. Lilje and SCEC for assistance with Figs. 1 and 2, and H. Qian and SCSN for producing Fig. 5. M. Abolins, K. Hafner, R. Reynolds, J. Spotila, B. Wemicke and J. D. Yule are graciously thanked for careful reviews and discussions which greatly improved early versions of the manuscript. Diane I. Doser is also thanked for a careful and helpful review. This is contribution 5558 from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences of the California Institute of Technology.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 44892
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140411-130807957
- Created
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2014-04-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-10-26Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Other Numbering System Name
- Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 5558