Abstract This three-day field trip will examine the nature of contemporary tectonic processes in the western Basin and Range province by focusing on the historical faulting and paleoseismology of the central Nevada seismic belt (CNSB) (Fig. 1 ). The trip begins in Reno and includes travel through Fallon, Nevada to major faulting sites in the 1954 Rainbow Mountain, Fairview Peak, and Dixie Valley rupture area ~125 km east of Reno (Fig. 2 ). The principal topics addressed by this trip will include: Map showing surface ruptures (bold lines) and focal mechanisms reported for major historical earthquakes of the central Nevada-eastern California seismic belt. Other Quaternary faults of the Basin and Range are shown as thinner lines. Compressional quadrants of focal mechanism are black. Focal mechanisms are from Doser (1986) and the National Earthquake Information Center. Area of Figure 2 is shown by the gray box. Within the central Nevada seismic belt, right-normal-oblique surface ruptures of 1954 Rainbow Mountain-Fairview Peak sequence mark a transition between dominantly right-lateral events to the south within the northwest-trending Walker Lane belt ( Stewart, 1988 ), and the dominantly dip-slip Dixie Valley and Pleasant Valley earthquakes to the north, where the Basin and Range is characterized by a consistent north-to northeast-trending structural grain. The structural pattern, distribution, and characteristics of surface faulting and secondary effects associated with large-magnitude historical earthquakes as they bear on the nature of modern tectonic processes in the CNSB. The paleoseismicity of the historical fault zones within

Abstract On December 16, 1954, two large-magnitude earthquakes occurred nearly simultaneously in the Fairview Peak-Dixie Valley area of western Nevada (Fig.1) (Slemmons, 1984). The first earthquake (Ms = 7.25) was centered near the middle of the Fairview Peak fault zone, where it crosses U.S. 50. It was followed four minutes later by a second shock(Ms=7-)centered on the east flank of the Stillwater Range in the northwest part of Dixie Valley, about 37 mi (60 km) to the north. Both earthquakes were accompanied by extensive and spectacular surface faulting (Slemmons, 1957). The combined rupture zone is about 62 mi (100 km) long and 18 mi (30 km) wide. The most spectacular scarps of this zone are at the main site (Figs.2 and 3) on the southeast side of Fairview Peak, an area that is about 5.5 mi (9 km) south of U.S. 50 and is accessible by passenger car on a new graded road.