Project
Earthquake Recurrence on the Banning Strand of the San Andreas fault: Collaborative Research with California State University, San Bernardino, and University of California, Los Angeles–status: completed (2017–2019)
This project offers detailed paleoseismic records of ground-deforming earthquakes on the Banning strand of the San Andreas Fault. We excavated a trench on the Banning strand at 18th Ave., in North Palm Springs, CA. Our findings suggest that the most recent paleoearthquake occurred between 730 and 950 cal BP. We identified at least five surface rupturing earthquakes since 3.3–2.5 ka and eight earthquakes since 7.1–5.7 ka. We calculate an average recurrence interval of 380–640 years based on four complete earthquake cycles. The Banning strand’s recurrence interval is similar to the San Gorgonio Pass Fault zone (450–1850 years) but longer than that for the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas Fault (~220 years).
Collaborators: Sally F. McGill (PI), Bryan Castillo (Graduate student), CSUSB; Seulgi Moon (Co-I), UCLA; Katherine (Kate) Scharer (Collaborator), Devin McPhillips (Collaborator), USGS, Pasadena; Nathan D. Brown (Collaborator), UTA; J. D. Yule (Collaborator), J. McNeil (Collaborator), CSUN.
Funding Agency: USGS: National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), NSF EAR.
Publications: Saha et al. in review, Castillo et al. accepted.
Figure. (a) The generalized trench log of the east and west wall at the Banning trench site shows the luminescence and \(^{14}\)C samples’ stratigraphic positions. Colored layers represent the marker horizons used for stratigraphic correlation between the trench walls and ‘E’ with a number denoting the earthquake horizon; a total of eight earthquake horizons were identified. The locations of luminescence samples are shown in black circles with corresponding sample IDs. (b) p-IR IRSL and \(^{14}\)C ages and 1-sigma error are plotted based on their stratigraphic depths. Vertical uncertainties result from correlation uncertainties between marker beds.
(modified after Castillo et al. in press)
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