Displacements on late Cenozoic strike-slip faults of the central Mojave Desert, California

Field studies demonstrate that displacements on northwest-striking wrench faults of the central Mojave Desert are too small to support hypotheses suggesting large interior translations and associated rotation of the province during late Cenozoic time. The margin of an early Miocene structural belt provides the marker with which to establish lateral displacement on individual faults. Displacement values for faults are as follows: Lenwood fault = 1.5–3 km, Camp Rock Fault = 1.6–4.0 km, Calico fault = 8.2 km, and Rodman-Pisgah faults = 6.4–14.4 km. Cumulative displacement on all the major northwest-striking faults of the Mojave Desert is about 26.7–38.4 km. Most, if not all, regionally distributed right shear (presumably related to Pacific–North American plate interaction) developed in the central Mojave Desert after 20 m.y. B.P. Right shear was preceded by significant amounts of kinematically unrelated northeast-southwest crustal extension.

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