Eric Fossett

Award Date

12-2005

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geoscience

First Committee Member

Wanda J. Taylor, Chair

Second Committee Member

Eugene I. Smith

Third Committee Member

Catherine M. Snelson

Graduate Faculty Representative

Barbara A. Luke

Number of Pages

103

Abstract

The Black Hills fault (BHF) is a Holocene fault located in Eldorado Valley, approximately 7 km from Boulder City, southern Nevada. The importance of this study is to determine the seismic hazards the BHF poses to Boulder City and the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area and to determine the mechanisms driving the young deformation in the Lake Mead region. The BHF is a multistranded fault that had five surface rupturing paleoearthquake events in the past approximately 25 ka. Paleoseismic fault offsets indicate that the BHF is capable of generating a Mw = 6.4-6.9 earthquake. Slip rates calculated for the BHF are 0.33-0.55 mm yr (super -1) , which is significantly higher than the 0.01-0.1 mm yr (super -1) slip rates estimated for most of the faults in this region. The high slip rates on the BHF, and several other young faults in the Lake Mead tectonic domain (LMTD) may relate to deformation in the Death Valley area. Active dextral and transtensional faulting in the Death Valley region accommodates northwestward translation of the Sierra Nevada block, and thus creates strain accommodation space, which may drive extension to the east in the LMTD.

Keywords

Earthquake hazard analysis; Fault zones; Faults (Geology); Nevada – Boulder City; Paleoseismology

Disciplines

Geology | Geophysics and Seismology | Tectonics and Structure

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Comments

Incomplete paper data.

Signatures have been redacted for privacy and security measures.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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