Geology topics

Research about Wells, Nevada

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Wells, Nevada.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2017

The 2008 Wells, Nevada earthquake sequence: Source constraints using calibrated multiple event relocation and InSAR

The 2008 Wells, NV earthquake represents the largest domestic event in the conterminous U.S. outside of California since the October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in southern Idaho. We present an improved catalog, magnitude complete to 1.6, of the foreshock-aftershock sequence, supplementing the current U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE) catalog with 1,928 well-located events. In order to create this catalog, both subspace and kurtosis detectors are used to obtain an initial set of earthquakes and associated locations. The latter are then calibrated through the implementation of the hypocentroidal decomposition method and relocated using the BayesLoc relocation technique. We additionally perform a finite fault slip analysis of the mainshock using InSAR observations. By combining the relocated sequence with the finite fault analysis, we show that the aftershocks occur primarily updip and along the southwestern edge of the zone of maximum slip. The aftershock locations illuminate areas of post-mainshock strain increase; aftershock depths, ranging from 5 to 16 km, are consistent with InSAR imaging, which shows that the Wells earthquake was a buried source with no observable near-surface offset.

Nevada↗

USGS2011

Global Positioning System constraints on crustal deformation before and during the 21 February 2008 Wells, Nevada M6.0 earthquake

Using Global Positioning System (GPS) data from permanent sites and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) campaign data we have estimated co-seismic displacements and secular background crustal deformation patterns associated with the 21 February 2008 Wells Nevada earthquake. Estimated displacements at nearby permanent GPS sites ELKO (84 km distant) and GOSH (81 km distant) are 1.0±0.2 mm and 1.1±0.3 mm, respectively. The magnitude and direction are in agreement with those predicted from a rupture model based on InSAR measurements of the near-field co-seismic surface displacement. Analysis of long GPS time series (>10 years) from the permanent sites within 250 km of the epicenter indicate the eastern Nevada Basin and Range undergoes steady tectonic transtension with rates on the order of 1 mm/year over approximately 250 km. The azimuth of maximum horizontal crustal extension is consistent with the azimuth of the Wells earthquake co-seismic slip vector. The orientation of crustal shear is consistent with deformation associated with Pacific/North America plate boundary relative motion seen elsewhere in the Basin and Range. In response to the event, we deployed a new GPS site with the capability to telemeter high rate, low latency data that will in the future allow for rapid estimation of surface displacement should aftershocks or postseismic deformations occur. We estimated co-seismic displacements using campaign GPS data collected before and after the event, however in most cases their uncertainties were larger than the offsets. Better precision in co-seismic displacement could have been achieved for the campaign sites if they had been surveyed more times or over a longer interval to better estimate their pre-event velocity.

Nevada↗

USGS2011

The regional structural setting of the 2008 Wells earthquake and Town Creek Flat Basin: implications for the Wells earthquake fault and adjacent structures

The 2008 Wells earthquake occurred on a northeast-striking, southeast-dipping fault that is clearly delineated by the aftershock swarm to a depth of 10-12 km below sea level. However, Cenozoic rocks and structures around Wells primarily record east-west extension along north- to north-northeast-striking, west-dipping normal faults that formed during the middle Miocene. These faults are responsible for the strong eastward tilt of most basins and ranges in the area, including the Town Creek Flat basin (the location of the earthquake) and the adjacent Snake Mountains and western Windermere Hills. These older west-dipping faults are locally overprinted by a younger generation of east-dipping, high-angle normal faults that formed as early as the late Miocene and have remained active into the Quaternary. The most prominent of these east-dipping faults is the set of en-échelon, north-striking faults that bounds the east sides of the Ruby Mountains, East Humboldt Range, and Clover Hill (about 5 km southwest of Wells). The northeastern-most of these faults, the Clover Hill fault, projects northward along strike toward the Snake Mountains and the approximately located surface projection of the Wells earthquake fault as defined by aftershock locations. The Clover Hill fault also projects toward a previously unrecognized, east-facing Quaternary fault scarp and line of springs that appear to mark a significant east-dipping normal fault along the western edge of Town Creek Flat. Both western and eastern projections may be northern continuations of the Clover Hill fault. The Wells earthquake occurred along this east-dipping fault system. Two possible alternatives to rupture of a northern continuation of the Clover Hill fault are that the earthquake fault (1) is antithetic to an active west-dipping fault or (2) reactivated a Mesozoic thrust fault that dips east as a result of tilting by the west-dipping faults along the west side of the Snake Mountains. Both alternatives are precluded by the depths of the earthquake and aftershocks, about 8 km and as deep as 12 km, respectively. These depths are below where an antithetic fault would intersect any main fault, and a tilted, formerly shallow and sub-horizontal thrust fault would not extend to depths of more than about 5–6 km. The east-dipping, high-angle, earthquake fault cuts older west-dipping faults rather than reactivating them, highlighting a change in the structural style of Basin and Range extension in this region from closely-spaced, west-dipping faults that rotated significantly during slip and accommodated large-magnitude extension, to widely-spaced, high-angle faults that accommodate much less total strain over a long time span.

Nevada↗