Big Pine Fault

Big Pine Fault
Name	Big Pine Fault
Location	Sierra Nevada, Inyo County, Owens Valley, Eastern California Shear Zone
Type	Right-lateral strike-slip
Plate	North American Plate

Big Pine Fault The Big Pine Fault is a major right-lateral strike-slip fault system located in the eastern Sierra Nevada near Owens Valley and Big Pine, influential in regional deformation between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. It forms part of the Eastern California Shear Zone and interacts with nearby structures such as the Garlock Fault, the White Mountains Fault Zone, and the White Mountain frontal fault. The fault has produced significant geomorphic change and episodic seismicity that have been studied by researchers from institutions including the United States Geological Survey, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Overview

The Big Pine Fault traverses high-relief terrain adjacent to Sierra Nevada crest features and links to basins like Owens Valley and Death Valley. Regional studies by teams at the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey, Stanford University, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have mapped its trace, defined its kinematics, and placed it into regional frameworks developed alongside research on the San Andreas Fault, the Garlock Fault, and the Walker Lane Belt. Historical field campaigns have involved personnel from the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, and academic groups at the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Davis.

Geology and Structure

Bedrock along the Big Pine Fault exposes Paleozoic and Mesozoic assemblages correlated with units described in Sierra Nevada stratigraphy, including metasedimentary rocks linked to studies by the Geological Society of America and igneous bodies comparable to plutons examined near Mount Whitney. Structural mapping parallels work on folding and faulting documented in research by USGS Professional Papers and by investigators affiliated with the Seismological Society of America. Cross-cutting relationships with faults mapped during projects from the National Science Foundation correlate with the displacement histories reconstructed using techniques developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology.

Tectonic Setting and Kinematics

The Big Pine Fault operates within the broad transtensional regime accommodating slip partitioning between the San Andreas Fault system and the interior of the Basin and Range Province. Kinematic models draw on GPS networks run by UNAVCO, the Plate Boundary Observatory, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to quantify right-lateral motion shared across the Eastern California Shear Zone and Walker Lane. Paleoseismic trenching and cosmogenic dating techniques refined at Columbia University and Cornell University have been applied to constrain slip rates and recurrence intervals comparable to values reported for the Garlock Fault and segments of the San Andreas Fault.

Seismicity and Earthquake History

Instrumental seismicity cataloged by the United States Geological Survey and the International Seismological Centre shows episodic earthquakes proximal to the fault trace, with notable events discussed in regional seismicity compilations alongside earthquakes such as the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake and the 1992 Landers earthquake. Paleoseismic records, correlated using radiocarbon and luminescence methods developed at Arizona State University and University of Arizona, indicate prehistoric ruptures that contribute to seismic hazard models maintained by the California Earthquake Authority and USGS National Seismic Hazard Model teams. Seismological analyses have been conducted using instrumentation from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and processed with algorithms standardized by the American Geophysical Union community.

Geomorphology and Surface Expressions

The fault produces linear escarpments, shutter ridges, and offset streams that reshape landscapes monitored by investigators from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration using satellite imagery produced by Landsat and ASTER. Fluvial terraces and alluvial fan offsets have been measured using techniques adopted in geomorphology studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Oregon State University, and these features are integrated into regional geomorphic syntheses published in journals of the Geological Society of America and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Hazard Assessment and Risk Mitigation

Hazard assessments for communities such as Big Pine and infrastructure including U.S. Route 395 rely on inputs from the California Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the California Office of Emergency Services. Risk mitigation strategies draw on building codes promulgated by the International Code Council, retrofitting programs endorsed by the Federal Highway Administration, and land-use planning coordinated by Inyo County authorities and regional planning bodies studied by researchers at California Polytechnic State University.

Research and Monitoring Studies

Ongoing research integrates paleoseismology by teams from University of California, Santa Barbara, geodesy by groups at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and numerical modeling from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. Monitoring networks funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by UNAVCO and the USGS continue to refine slip-rate estimates and earthquake chronologies, while multidisciplinary collaborations with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have advanced seismic hazard tools applied across the Eastern California Shear Zone.

Category:Faults of California Category:Geology of Inyo County, California