San Andreas Fault Earthquake Chronology and Lake Cahuilla History at Coachella, California
- Creators
- Philibosian, Belle
- Fumal, Thomas
- Weldon, Ray
Abstract
The southernmost ~100 km of the San Andreas fault has not ruptured historically. It is imperative to determine its rupture history to better predict its future behavior. This paleoseismic investigation in Coachella, California, establishes a chronology of at least five and up to seven major earthquakes during the past ~1100 yr. This chronology yields a range of average recurrence intervals between 116 and 221 yr, depending on assumptions, with a best-estimate average recurrence interval of 180 yr. The most recent earthquake occurred c.1690, more than 300 yr ago, suggesting that this stretch of the fault has accumulated a large amount of tectonic stress and is likely to rupture in the near future, assuming the fault follows a stress renewal model. This study also establishes the timing of the past 5–6 highstands of ancient Lake Cahuilla since A.D. 800. We found that earthquakes do not tend to occur at any particular stage in the lake cycle.
Additional Information
© 2011 Seismological Society of America. Manuscript received 5 March 2010. This research was funded by USGS NEHRP grant #07HQGR0019, USGS grant #06HQAG0143, and internal funding from the University of Oregon. Belle Philibosian was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. We are extremely grateful to Rilington Communities for granting access to their property and to Matt Cohrt and Doug Cook of Sladden Engineering for accommodating our study. We would like to thank Katherine Kendrick, Kate Scharer, Sean Bemis, Reed Burgette, Beth Wisely, Nissa Morton, and Mike O'Bleness for their invaluable assistance in the field; Malcolm Britton, Lorna Crider, Tyler Claycomb, and Sarah Hunt for assistance with image processing; and Ken Hudnut of USGS for assistance with funding acquisition and LiDAR data. For assistance with carbon dating, we thank Michaele Kashgarian and Paula Zermeno of the Center for Acceleration Mass Spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Douglas Kennett and Brian Culleton of the Coastal Archaeology and Human Ecology Laboratory at the University of Oregon, and John Southon of the Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. This paper was greatly improved thanks to thoughtful reviews by Katherine Kendrick, Rob Langridge, Tom Rockwell, and Pat Williams.Attached Files
Published - Philibosian2011p12744B_Seismol_Soc_Am.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 22572
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110301-100935325
- 07HQGR0019
- USGS
- 06HQAG0143
- USGS
- University of Oregon
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Created
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2011-03-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field