Evidence for an active shear zone in southern Nevada linking the Wasatch Fault to the Eastern California shear zone

Previous studies have shown that approximately 5% of the Pacific-North America relative plate motion is accommodated in the eastern part of the Great Basin (western United States). Near the Wasatch fault zone and other nearby faults, deformation is currently concentrated within a narrow zone of extension coincident with the eastern margin of the northern Basin and Range. Farther south, the pattern of active deformation implied by faulting and seismicity is more enigmatic. To assess how present-day strain is accommodated farther south and how this relates to the regional kinematics, we analyze data from continuous global positioning system (GPS) stations and model the strain rate tensor field using the horizontal GPS velocities and earthquake focal mechanisms. The results indicate an approximately 100-km-wide zone of approximately 3.3 mm/yr extension at 40.5 degrees N that broadens southward from the Wasatch fault zone to a width of >400 km at 36 degrees N. This broadening involves at least one zone of localized extension in northwestern Arizona that encroaches into the southwestern plateau, and an east-northeast-trending sinistral shear zone (the Pahranagat shear zone) through southern Nevada. This shear zone may accommodate as much as 1.8 mm/yr, and is a key feature that enables westward transfer of extension, thereby providing a kinematic connection between the Wasatch fault zone and the Eastern California shear zone.