Mechanical Validation of the Three-Dimensional Intersection Geometry between the Puente Hills Blind-Thrust System and the Whittier Fault, Los Angeles, California

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 493-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Griffith
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Godard ◽  
Jean-Claude Hippolyte ◽  
Edward Cushing ◽  
Nicolas Espurt ◽  
Jules Fleury ◽  
...  

Abstract. Documenting the spatial variability of tectonic processes from topography is routinely undertaken through the analysis of river profiles, since a direct relationship between fluvial gradient and rock uplift has been identified by incision models. Similarly, theoretical formulations of hillslope profiles predict a strong dependence on their base-level lowering rate, which in most situations is set by channel incision. However, the reduced sensitivity of near-threshold hillslopes and the limited availability of high-resolution topographic data has often been a major limitation for their use to investigate tectonic gradients. Here we combined high-resolution analysis of hillslope morphology and cosmogenic-nuclide-derived denudation rates to unravel the distribution of rock uplift across a blind thrust system at the southwestern Alpine front in France. Our study is located in the Mio-Pliocene Valensole molassic basin, where a series of folds and thrusts has deformed a plateau surface. We focused on a series of catchments aligned perpendicular to the main structures. Using a 1 m lidar digital terrain model, we extracted hillslope topographic properties such as hilltop curvature CHT and nondimensional erosion rates E∗. We observed systematic variation of these metrics coincident with the location of a major underlying thrust system identified by seismic surveys. Using a simple deformation model, the inversion of the E∗ pattern allows us to propose a location and dip for a blind thrust, which are consistent with available geological and geophysical data. We also sampled clasts from eroding conglomerates at several hilltop locations for 10Be and 26Al concentration measurements. Calculated hilltop denudation rates range from 40 to 120 mm kyr−1. These denudation rates appear to be correlated with E∗ and CHT that were extracted from the morphological analysis, and these rates are used to derive absolute estimates for the fault slip rate. This high-resolution hillslope analysis allows us to resolve short-wavelength variations in rock uplift that would not be possible to unravel using commonly used channel-profile-based methods. Our joint analysis of topography and geochronological data supports the interpretation of active thrusting at the southwestern Alpine front, and such approaches may bring crucial complementary constraints to morphotectonic analysis for the study of slowly slipping faults.


1977 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1089-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf B. Husar ◽  
David E. Patterson ◽  
Donald L. Blumenthal ◽  
Warren H. White ◽  
Theodore B. Smith

Abstract Data from a three-dimensional pollutant mapping program, conducted in the Los Angeles basin, wereanalyzed to obtain "grand average" vertical profiles sampled on 24 summer days in 1973. Morning andafternoon profiles at four locations show an erosion of the nighttime radiation inversion, increased temperatures, more intense mixing in the inland areas, and a semi-permanent subsidence inversion at higher levels.High values of primary pollutant parameters (NO, and condensation nuclei) are seen in the western part ofthe basin at Hawthorne. Secondary pollutant parameters (Os and light scattering coefficient) were dominating at the inland receptor site, Riverside. Ozone concentrations in the morning were consistently higheraloft. The deficit near the surface is attributed to ozone scavenging by primary emissions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Muto ◽  
Swaminathan Krishnan

This work represents an effort to develop one plausible realization of the effects of the scenario event on tall steel moment-frame buildings. We have used the simulated ground motions with three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models of three buildings in the 20-story class to simulate structural responses at 784 analysis sites spaced at approximately 4 km throughout the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, and the Los Angeles Basin. Based on the simulation results and available information on the number and distribution of steel buildings, the recommended damage scenario for the ShakeOut drill was 5% of the estimated 150 steel moment-frame structures in the 10–30 story range collapsing, 10% red-tagged, 15% with damage serious enough to cause loss of life, and 20% with visible damage requiring building closure.


2003 ◽  
Vol 174 (5) ◽  
pp. 481-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Delteil ◽  
Jean-François Stephan ◽  
Mikaël Attal

Abstract Structural investigations reveal intense and heterogeneous deformation of the sedimentary cover attached to the basement complex of the southern Argentera and Barrot massifs (southernmost External Basement Massifs of the French Alps). Permian and early Triassic syn-depositional extensional tectonics imparted a tilted block pattern to the massifs. An early Miocene first stage of Alpine compression caused pervasive cleavage. This cleavage was controlled by the former pre-existing faults but is nevertheless consistent with NNE contraction. Where regional shortening is orthogonal to the trend of pre-existing faults the pervasive deformation produced either irrotational compressional strain (where no fault inversion occurred), or rotational compressional strain involving syn-cleavage shearing (where faults with favorable paleo-dip were inverted). Where the shortening direction is oblique to the paleo-fault trends, a component of strike-slip movement may locally prevail. A 22 %, N020o directed horizontal shortening, of 11 km, has been calculated based on deformed sedimentary markers in the Permian series and parallel folds in Lower Triassic quartzite. A shallower deformation as brittle reverse faults postdates the cleavage at the southwestern tip of the Argentera Massif and accounts for 4 km of extra shortening. Both types of deformation are connected at depth to a crustal blind thrust system and the Argentera Massif is over-thrust to the south-southwest. The observed strain indicates the Argentera Massif area underwent, from earliest Miocene to Present, a NNE to N rotating compression at distance from the left-lateral southwestern boundary of the Adria block.


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