Early Pleistocene initiation of the San Felipe fault zone, SW Salton Trough, during reorganization of the San Andreas fault system

摘要

Structural and stratigraphic analyses along the western margin of the Salton Trough show that the San Andreas fault system was reorganized in early Pleistocene time from a system dominated by two fault zones (the San Andreas fault and the West Salton detachment fault) to a network of dextral faults that include the San Andreas and at least four dextral faults to the southwest. The San Felipe fault zone, one of these dextral faults, has ~5.8 ± 2.8 km of right separation and consists of three principal faults in the Peninsular Ranges. These are the San Felipe fault in the WNW, Sunset fault in the middle, and Fish Creek Mountains fault in the ESE. They form a left-stepping array and bound domains in which the Sunset Conglomerate, the older West Salton detachment fault, and Cretaceous mylonitic rocks below the detachment are folded about WNW-trending folds. A complex flower structure within the left-stepovers probably produced this fault-parallel folding. Because all the rocks within stepovers of the San Felipe fault zone, from Cretaceous to Pleistocene, are deformed about WNW-trending folds and record broadly similar shortening strains, we infer a Quaternary age of deformation. Parts of the San Felipe fault zone cut latest Pleistocene to Holocene surficial deposits, and the fault zone is likely active.