Exploring Arizona earth fissures: An anthropogenic geologic hazard
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Published:September 04, 2019
ABSTRACT
Earth fissures are tensile surface cracks exposed at Earth’s surface. In Arizona, such fissures are predominantly found in the central and southeastern regions of the state, where they form in response to subsidence driven by groundwater pumping. Growth and erosion of these fissures often occurs during large monsoon storms, resulting in slumping and collapse of the fissure walls, propagation of the fissure head, as well as the development of gully networks out from the main fissure stem. Fissure initiation and propagation threaten existing infrastructure, can cause property damage, and increase the potential for groundwater contamination from surface pollutants. It...
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Contents
Geologic Excursions in Southwestern North America

This volume, prepared as part of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Phoenix, includes field guides covering aspects of the spectacular geology of southwestern North America. Field guides tackle the geology of the southern Colorado Plateau, from paleoenvironments of Petrified Forest National Park, to Jurassic sand dunes of southern Utah, to the San Francisco Volcanic Field, to awesome Grand Canyon. Appropriately for the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing, one trip visits sites in northern Arizona that helped prepare astronauts for their missions. Several guides address aspects of the Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonic development of the Transition Zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range. Exploring the Basin and Range, guides feature Laramide tectonism and ore deposit development, features associated with large-magnitude Cenozoic extensional tectonism, large Miocene volcanic centers in northwestern Arizona, and tectonism and development of the lower Colorado River. Three field guides explore various aspects of northwestern Mexico, including tectonics and ore deposits of Sonora, fauna and paleoenvironments of Colorado River delta deposits, and volcanism in central Baja California. Finally, a guide analyzes anthropogenic earth fissures that have developed in the Phoenix metropolitan area.