Faults: Offshore of Fort Ross, California, 2009

Description:

This line shapefile contains fault lines for the offshore area of Fort Ross, California. The map was generated from data collected by California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), and by Fugro Pelagos. The map area is cut by the northwest-trending San Andreas Fault, the right-lateral transform boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates. The San Andreas extends across the inner shelf in the southern part of the map, then crosses the shoreline at Fort Ross and continues onland for about 75 km to the east flank of Point Arena (fig. 8-1). Seismic-reflection data are used to map the offshore fault trace, and reveal a relatively simple, 200- to 500-m wide zone typically characterized by one or two primary strands. About 1500 m west of the San Andreas Fault, the mid shelf (between water depths of 40 m and 70 m) in the southernmost part of the map area includes an about 5-km-wide field of elongate, shore-normal sediment lobes (unit Qmsl). Individual lobes within the field are as much as 650-m long and 200-m wide, have as much as 1.5 m (check with Steve) of relief above the surrounding smooth seafloor, and are commonly connected with upslope chutes. Given their morphology and proxmity to the San Andreas fault, we infer that these lobes result from slope failures associated with strong ground motions triggered by large San Andreas earthquakes. Movement on the San Andreas has juxtaposed different coastal bedrock blocks (Blake and others, 2002). Rocks east of the fault that occur along the coast and in the nearshore belong to the late Tertiary, Cretaceous, and Jurassic Franciscan Complex, either sandstone of the Coastal Belt or Central Belt (unit TKfs) or melange of the central terrane (unit fsr). Bedrock west of the fault are considered part of the Gualala Block (Elder, 1998) and include the Eocene and Paleocene German Rancho Formation (unit Tgr) and the Miocene sandstone and mudstone of the Fort Ross area (unit Tsm). This section of the San Andreas Fault onland has an estimated slip rate of about 17 to 25 mm/yr (Bryant and Lundberg, 2002). The devastating Great 1906 California earthquake (M 7.8) is thought to have nucleated on the San Andreas Fault about 100 kilometers south of this map area offshore of San Francisco (e.g., Bolt, 1968; Lomax, 2005), with the rupture extending northward through the Offshore of Fort Ross map area to the south flank of Cape Mendocino. Emergent marine terraces along the coast in the Offshore of Fort Ross map area record recent contractional deformation associated with the San Andreas Fault system. Prentice and Kelson (2006) report uplift rates of 0.3 to 0.6 mm/yr for a late Pleistocene terrace exposed at Fort Ross, and this recent uplift must also have affect the nearshore and inner shelf. Previously, McCulloch (1987) mapped a nearshore (within 3 to 5 km of the coast) fault zone from Point Arena to Fort Ross (Fig. 8-1) using primarily deeper industry seismic-reflection data. Subsequently, Dickinson and others (2005) named this structure the "Gualala Fault." Our mapping, also based on seismic-reflection data, reveals this structure as a steep, northeast trending fault and similarly shows the fault ending to the south in the northern part of the Offshore of Fort Ross map area. We have designated the zone of faulting and folding above this structure the "Gualala Fault deformation zone." Faults were primarily mapped by interpretation of seismic reflection profile data (see field activity S-8-09-NC). The seismic reflection profiles were collected between 2007 and 2010. This layer is part of USGS Data Series 781. In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP) to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California's State Waters. CSMP has divided coastal California into 110 map blocks, each to be published individually as United States Geological Survey Open-File Reports (OFRs) or Scientific Investigations Maps (SIMs) at a scale of 1:24,000. Maps display seafloor morphology and character, identify potential marine benthic habitats and illustrate both the seafloor geology and shallow (to about 100 m) subsurface geology. Data layers for bathymetry, bathymetric contours, acoustic backscatter, seafloor character, potential benthic habitat and offshore geology were created for each map block, as well as regional-scale data layers for sediment thickness, depth to transition, transgressive contours, isopachs, predicted distributions of benthic macro-invertebrates and visual observations of benthic habitat from video cruises over the entire state. These data are intended for science researchers, students, policy makers, and the general public. This information is not intended for navigational purposes.The data can be used with geographic information systems (GIS) software to display geologic and oceanographic information. Additionally, this coverage can provide a geologic map for the public and geoscience community to aid in assessments and mitigation of geologic hazards in the coastal region and sufficient geologic information for land-use and land-management decisions both onshore and offshore. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.

Resource Link:

https://purl.stanford.edu/nv824nq7744

Identifier:

https://purl.stanford.edu/nv824nq7744

Language:

eng

Creator:

Manson, Michael W., Johnson, Samuel Y., Hartwell, Stephen R., Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, and Golden, Nadine E.

Publisher:

Geological Survey (U.S.)

Provider:

Stanford

Resource Class:

Datasets

Resource Type:

Line data

Subject:

Coasts, Faults (Geology), Ocean bottom, Geoscientific Information, and Oceans

Theme:

Land cover and Oceans

Temporal Coverage:

2009

Date Issued:

2014

Spatial Coverage:

California, Sonoma County (Calif.), and Pacific Ocean

Rights:

This item is in the public domain. There are no restrictions on use.

Rights Holder:

This work is in the Public Domain, meaning that it is not subject to copyright.

Access Rights:

Public

Format:

Shapefile

Georeferenced:

false