Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

Seismological Society of America, The Seismic Record, 1(1), p. 35-45, 2021

DOI: 10.1785/0320210009

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

A Broad, Distributed Active Fault Zone Lies beneath Salt Lake City, Utah

Journal article published in 2021 by Lee M. Liberty ORCID, James St. Clair ORCID, Adam P. McKean ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract Although the Wasatch fault is currently known to have a high-seismic hazard from motion along range-bounding faults, new seismic data reveal faulted and folded 13,000–30,000-yr-old Lake Bonneville strata beneath Salt Lake City (SLC). Coupled with previous excavation trench, borehole, and other geologic and geophysical observations, we conclude that a zone of latest Pleistocene and/or Holocene faulting and folding kinematically links the East Bench and Warm Springs faults through a 3 km wide relay structure and transfer zone. We characterize faults beneath downtown SLC as active, and these faults may displace or deform the ground surface during an earthquake. Through offset but linked faults, our observations support throughgoing ruptures across faults of the Wasatch fault zone (WFZ) and an elevated risk of earthquake-induced building damage.