Results of 3-D georadar surveying and trenching the San Andreas fault near its northern landward limit

Abstract

As part of a program to determine the location and geometry of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) buried beneath shallow sediments near its northern landward limit, three >20-m-long parallel trenches were constructed at positions distributed over a distance of ∼55 m. The majority of excavated material comprised unconsolidated fluvial sediments deposited in a number of paleochannels. Single zones of active faulting identified in each of the trenches were initially interpreted in terms of a solitary strand of the SAF. To map the SAF between and beyond the trenches and to detect other active fault zones hidden by the young sedimentary cover, we collected a dense ground-penetrating radar (georadar) data set across a 23.2×72 m area. The data were recorded using a semi-automated acquisition system that included a conventional georadar unit coupled to a self-tracking laser theodolite with automatic target recognition capabilities. Since these data were plagued by system ringing as a result of the moderate-to-high electrical conductivities of the surficial sediments, an extensive data processing scheme was required to extract meaningful subsurface information. The final processed georadar volume (cuboid) contained numerous subhorizontal and trough-shaped reflections that originated from the fluvial paleochannels. Using the geological interpretation of the trench walls as a guide to pick semi-automatically the times of the most important reflecting horizons, we discovered that alignments of the nearly linear boundaries of these horizons defined two NW–SE trending strands of the SAF within the survey area. The georadar expression of the eastern SAF strand could only be traced over a distance of ∼38 m. It had been intersected in the northern trench. In contrast, the western SAF strand extended over the entire length of the georadar volume and had been intersected in the central and southern trenches. Prominent reflections on georadar cross sections were found to be vertically displaced by 0.2–0.3 m across both SAF strands. A conspicuous linear-trending feature observed on horizontal sections at 3.3–3.6 m depth was laterally offset by 4.5–5.5 m along the eastern SAF strand. The interpreted vertical and horizontal offsets could have been generated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and/or earlier events. Undetermined amounts of aseismic slip may also have occurred along the newly defined SAF strands.