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Abstract

Seismic reflection profiles, petroleum wells, and relocated earthquakes reveal the presence of an active blind-thrust fault beneath metropolitan Los Angeles. A segment of this fault likely caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows (magnitude 6.0) earthquake. Mapped sizes of other fault segments suggest that the system is capable of much larger (magnitude 6.5 to 7) and more destructive earthquakes.

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REFERENCES AND NOTES

1
Scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Southern California Earthquake Center, Science266, 389 (1994).
2
C. M. Rubin, S. C. Lindvall, T. K. Rockwell, ibid. 281, 398 (1998).
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Stein R. S., Ekstrom G., J. Geophys. Res. 97, 4865 (1992).
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Shaw J., Suppe J., ibid. 101, 8623 (1996).
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T. L. Davis, J. Namson, R. F. Yerkes, ibid.94, 9644 (1989).
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Suppe J., Am. J. Sci. 283, 684 (1983).
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R. F. Yerkes, U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap. 420-C (1972).
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T. L. Wright, in Active Margin Basins, K. T. Biddle, Ed., Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Mem. 52, 35 (1991).
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R. S. Yeats and G. J. Huftile, Southern California Earthquake Center 1996 Annual Report, (Southern California Earthquake Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1997), vol. II, pp. C75–C79.
11
J. Suppe, G. T. Chou, S. C. Hook, in Thrust Tectonics, K. R. McKlay, Ed. (Chapman & Hall, London, 1992), pp. 105–121.
12
The seismic profile presented in Fig. 1 underwent a standard processing routine including normal move-out correction and wave equation migration (Kirchoff F/K domain). The interpreted fault plane is highlighted in red and was selected in a user-defined area by its dip and lateral coherence. Various additional processing steps aimed at reducing noise and eliminating dipping artifacts were applied to the line (not shown), including frequency–wave number (FK) filters and frequency (FX) deconvolution. These steps failed to remove the north-dipping reflections interpreted to represent the fault surface.
13
The Elysian Park fault system forms the overlying Santa Monica Mountains anticlinorium (5). Both the fault and the anticlinorium have a northwest-southeast orientation (4, 5) that is distinct from the east-west–striking nodal planes of the 1987 Whittier Narrows mainshock (14) and the mapped segments of the Southern Puente Hills blind-thrust system (Fig. 2). Moreover, the Puente Hills fault system lies on top of folds formed above the Elysian Park system (Fig. 1). Thus, we contend that the Elysian Park and Puente Hills fault systems are distinct from one another.
14
Hauksson E., Jones L., J. Geophys. Res. 94, 9569 (1989).
15
Shearer P. M., ibid. 102, 8269 (1997).
16
K. B. Richards-Dinger and P. M. Shearer, Eos (Fall Meeting Suppl.) 78, F445 (1997).
17
Fault areas are taken below 5-km depth, which we consider to be the minimum depth of significant moment release in large earthquakes. Shallower thresholds can be considered with the use of the fault map in Fig. 2.
18
Wells D. L., Coppersmith K. J., Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 84, 974 (1994).
19
Dolan J. F., et al., Science 267, 199 (1995).
20
Minimum and maximum slip rates are determined on the basis of geologic and geodetic constraints. The geometry of folded growth strata in the Santa Fe Spring structures indicates that at least 800 m of slip occurred on the underlying blind thrust in the Quaternary, with the use of the methods of Suppe et al. (11) and Shaw and Suppe (4). Use of the maximum age of Quaternary strata (1.6. million years ago) yields a minimum slip rate of 0.5 mm/year. Maximum slip rate (2.0 mm/year) is taken as the portion of the shortening (7.5 to 9.5 mm/year) (21, 22) measured by geodesy across the Los Angeles basin that remains unaccounted for on previously recognized fault systems (23).
21
Bock Y., et al., J. Geophys. Res. 102, 18013 (1997).
22
Bock Y., Williams S., Eos 78, 293 (1997).
23
Walls C., et al., Nature 394, 356 (1998).
24
This research was funded by the Southern California Earthquake Center and data were provided by Texaco. We thank F. Bilotti, K. Bishop, K. Richards-Dinger, J. Dolan, G. Ekström, K. Mueller, and P. Süss for contributions to this work.

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Published In

Science
Volume 283 | Issue 5407
5 March 1999

Submission history

Received: 24 July 1998
Accepted: 20 January 1999
Published in print: 5 March 1999

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Authors

Affiliations

John H. Shaw*
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
and Peter M. Shearer
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093–0225, USA.

Notes

*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]

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