Paleoearthquake recurrence on the East Paradise fault zone, metropolitan Albuquerque, New Mexico

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
By:  and 

Links

Abstract

A fortuitous exposure of the East Paradise fault zone near Arroyo de las Calabacillas has helped us determine a post-middle Pleistocene history for a long-forgotten Quaternary fault in the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mapping of two exposures of the fault zone allowed us to measure a total vertical offset of 2.75 m across middle Pleistocene fluvial and eolian deposits and to estimate individual surface-faulting events of about 1, 0.5, and 1.25 m. These measurements and several thermoluminescence ages allow us to calculate a long-term average slip rate of 0.01 ± 0.001 mm/yr and date two surface-faulting events to 208 ± 25 ka and 75 ± 7 ka. The youngest event probably occurred in the late Pleistocene, sometime after 75 ± 7 ka. These data yield a single recurrence interval of 133 ± 26 ka and an average recurrence interval of 90 ± 10 ka. However, recurrence intervals are highly variable because the two youngest events occurred in less than 75 ka. Offsets of 0.5-1.25 m and a fault length of 13-20 km indicate that surface-rupturing paleoearthquakes on the East Paradise fault zone had probable Ms or Mw magnitudes of 6.8-7.0. Although recurrence intervals are long on the East Paradise fault zone, these data are significant because they represent some of the first published slip rate, paleoearthquake magnitude, and recurrence information for any of the numerous Quaternary faults in the rapidly growing Albuquerque-Rio Rancho metropolitan area.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Paleoearthquake recurrence on the East Paradise fault zone, metropolitan Albuquerque, New Mexico
Series title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI 10.1785/0119990089
Volume 90
Issue 2
Year Published 2000
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
First page 357
Last page 369
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details