RIGHT-LATERAL STRIKE-SLIP FAULTING IN THE WALKER LANE, WEST-CENTRAL NEVADA

摘要

The Pilot Mountains, Gabbs Valley Range, Garfield Hills, and Soda Spring Valley, in southeastern Mineral County, Nevada, are sliced into blocks by northwest-trending faults. Geometrical analysis of offsets in pre-Tertiary bedrocks indicates a total aggregate right-lateral strike-slip displacement of about 12 miles. Ten miles of lateral displacement occurred along the Soda Spring Valley fault, the largest fault in the area. Lateral faulting may have begun late in Miocene time and continued to the Recent. The area of faulting lies within the Walker Lane and is part of a zone of right-lateral strike-slip faulting in the western margin of the Basin and Range province. This zone probably extends from southern Death Valley, California, to north of the Gabbs Valley Range, Nevada, a distance of about 260 miles.