Abstract Title: Paleoseismic Transect across the northern Great Basin

Abstract Author(s):   Wesnousky, Steven (UNR)

Abstract: GPS measurements are now providing a measure of the pattern and rates 
of contemporary crustal strain accumulation across the northern Basin and 
Range. Understanding the relationship of strain accumulation to strain release 
and the effect of historical earthquakes on the contemporary strain signal 
stand to be problems of fundamental import to the goals of PBO. Observations 
arising from the excavation of trenches, scarp profiling, and radiocarbon 
dating are used to place limits on the paleoseismic history of faults bounding 
9 ranges across the interior of the northern Great Basin, specifically, the Pah 
Rah, Shawave, Humboldt, Sonoma, Shoshone, Tuscaroora, Dry Hills, Ruby-East 
Humboldt, and Pequop ranges. Combining our observations with previously 
published work within and at the margins of the Great Basin, we construct a 
paleoseismic transect across the northern Great Basin. The results provide an 
initial quantitative illustration of the pattern of strain release by large 
earthquakes across the entirety of the northern Basin and Range province. The 
recurrence of large earthquakes along ranges within the interior is observed to 
be systematically less than observed along the margins. The result is in 
general accord with GPS measurements that indicate contemporary strain 
accumulation is concentrated along the margins of the margins of the Basin and 
Range province. The ranges on strike with the Central Nevada Seismic Belt do 
not appear to show an increased rate of recurrence as compared to those 
elsewhere in the interior of the Basin.