UC San Diego

This dissertation investigates the architecture and segmentation of fault structures in Southern California, using marine active-source seismic data. Onshore or marine fault geometry is often poorly constrained due to their location. This study employs marine active-source seismic data to image these structures, and further the current understanding of the hazards they pose to the region. With these data, this dissertation first improves the existing framework of knowledge of fault architecture in the Salton pull-apart basin, near the terminus of the Southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF). It investigates the evolution of the pull-apart basin in the Imperial-San Andreas fault system with reflection and refraction data, and provides important constraints regarding the interplay of faults and strain partitioning in this region. New data suggest the existence of a previously unknown fault in the Salton Sea, the Salton Trough Fault (STF). This transtensional fault is located just to the west of the eastern Salton Sea shoreline, and strikes approximately parallel to the SSAF terminus. Finally, this dissertation investigates the architecture and segmentation of the Newport-Inglewood/ Rose Canyon (NIRC) fault zone oshore Southern California, using seismic data sets with unprecedented density and resolution. It identifies four main fault strands, with three main stepover boundaries, and presents possible rupture scenarios based on quantitative and qualitative assessments of throughgoing rupture at stepovers or segment boundaries