Latest Pleistocene and Holocene slip rates on the Lone Mountain fault: Evidence for accelerating slip in the Silver Peak-Lone Mountain extensional complex

Abstract

Determining the constancy of fault slip rates over time is critical in characterizing strain distribution across plate boundaries such as the Pacific-North American plate boundary in the western U.S. We present results from the Lone Mountain fault, a normal fault within the southern Walker Lane, that suggest slip rates there may have increased approximately twofold since the late Pleistocene. We combine detailed field surficial mapping, topographic surveying, and 10Be cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages to calculate new late Pleistocene and Holocene slip rates on the Lone Mountain fault. Alluvial fans with ages of 14.6 ± 1.4 ka and 8.0 ± 0.9 ka are vertically offset 10.2 ± 0.6 m and 4.7 ± 0.6 m, respectively, yielding vertical slip rates of 0.7 ± 0.1 mm/yr and 0.6 ± 0.1 mm/yr. These slip rates are faster than the rates of 0.1 to 0.4 mm/yr from earlier in the Pleistocene, defining a pattern of accelerating slip on the Lone Mountain fault over a timescale of 104 years. The possibility of accelerating slip rates in parts of the Walker Lane partially reconciles the observed discrepancy between long- and short-term slip rates in this region and elucidates the distribution of strain across an evolving plate boundary.