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Testing for fault activity at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, using independent GPS results from the BARGEN network
Author(s) -
Hill Emma M.,
Blewitt Geoffrey
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2006gl026140
Subject(s) - geology , global positioning system , tectonics , seismology , fault (geology) , geodesy , shear zone , shear (geology) , inversion (geology) , paleontology , telecommunications , computer science
Data from BARGEN GPS stations around Yucca Mountain (YM) have been independently processed using GIPSY‐OASIS and GAMIT/GLOBK. The RMS velocity differences between these solutions is 0.06 mm/yr (east component) and 0.10 mm/yr (north), indicating an ability to resolve tectonic signals >0.3 mm/yr with high confidence. Inversion of GPS station velocities for Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ) fault parameters produces an unreasonably deep locking depth of ∼30 km for the Death Valley‐Furnace Creek fault system, contradicting seismological evidence. The GPS cluster locally west of YM observes a strain rate of 17.0 ± 1.8 ns/yr, marginally higher than our ECSZ model predicts (13.9 ± 0.7 ns/yr). Significantly, the cluster to the east observes 22.3 ± 2.1 ns/yr, which is 6.2σ higher than the model (8.6 ± 0.7 ns/yr), suggesting that additional sources of strain more local to YM (<30 km) are currently active, collectively accumulating >0.7 mm/yr.