Topographic profiles across late Quaternary surfaces in the northern Sacramento Valley (California, USA) show offset and progressive folding on series of active east- and northeast—trending faults and folds. Optically stimulated luminescence ages on deposits draping a warped late Pleistocene river terrace yielded differential incision rates along the Sacramento River and indicate tectonic uplift equal to 0.2 ± 0.1 and 0.6 ± 0.2 mm/yr above the anticline of the Inks Creek fold system and Red Bluff fault, respectively. Uplift rates correspond to a total of 1.3 ± 0.4 mm/yr of north-directed crustal shortening, accounting for all of the geodetically observed contractional strain in the northern Sacramento Valley, but only part of the far-field contraction between the Sierra Nevada–Great Valley and Oregon Coast blocks. These structures define the southern limit of the transpressional transition between the two blocks.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2021 |
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Title | Characterizing strain between rigid crustal blocks in the southern Cascadia forearc: Quaternary faults and folds of the northern Sacramento Valley, California |
DOI | 10.1130/G48114.1 |
Authors | Stephen J. Angster, Steven G. Wesnousky, Paula Figueiredo, Lewis A. Owen, Thomas Sawyer |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Geology |
Index ID | 70217541 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Earthquake Science Center |