Student Participation in an Offshore Seismic-Reflection Study of the Palos Verdes Fault, California Continental Borderland

Abstract

We have developed a marine seismic-reflection program that involves students in research and instruction and is being successfully used to train students in quantitative and structural concepts. Over 100 high-school to graduate-level students have participated in the program over the last five years (1993–98). The research target is the Palos Verdes fault, a major seismogenic strike-slip fault in the California Continental Borderland. Students have participated in cruise planning and data acquisition, processing, and interpretation, and they have produced semester reports, senior theses, and oral papers and posters at meetings.Seismic mapping of a 10-km part of the fault south of Los Angeles Harbor shows a small (300 m) restraining segment and a larger (1–2 km) releasing segment in the fault. Two small (4-m-high and 1-km-wide) bulges on the seafloor indicate shortening near the restraining segment. This evidence of Holocene strain provides information on the tectonic history of this important fault. The results help us build a case study of fault evolution and plate interaction for our classes in oceanography and geology and raise student interest in earthquakes and in the origin of local fault-controlled features such as the Palos Verdes Hills.