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Insights into Wasatch fault vertical slip rates using the age of sediments in Timpanogos Cave, Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan L. Mayo ,
Jiri Bruthans ,
David Tingey ,
Jaroslav Kadlec  and
Steve Nelson
Alan L. Mayo*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Department of Geosciences, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Jiri Bruthans
Affiliation:
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, 128 43 Praha 2, Czech Republic
David Tingey
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Department of Geosciences, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Jaroslav Kadlec
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojova 269, 165 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic
Steve Nelson
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Department of Geosciences, Provo, UT 84602, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author.

E-mail address:alan_mayo@byu.edu (A.L. Mayo).

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Abstract

Timpanogos Cave, located near the Wasatch fault, is about 357 m above the American Fork River. Fluvial cave sediments and an interbedded carbonate flowstone yield a paleomagnetic and U–Th depositional age of 350 to 780 ka. Fault vertical slip rates, inferred from calculated river downcutting rates, range between 1.02 and 0.46 mm yr− 1. These slip rates are in the range of the 0–12 Ma Wasatch Range exhumation rate (∼ 0.5–0.7 mm yr− 1), suggesting that the long-term vertical slip rate remained stable through mid-Pleistocene time. However, the late Pleistocene (0–250 ka) decelerated slip rate (∼ 0.2–0.3 mm yr− 1) and the accelerated Holocene slip rate (∼ 1.2 mm yr− 1) are consistent with episodic fault activity. Assuming that the late Pleistocene vertical slip rate represents an episodic slowing of fault movement and the long-term (0–12 Ma) average vertical slip rate, including the late Pleistocene and Holocene, should be ∼ 0.6 mm yr− 1, there is a net late Pleistocene vertical slip deficit of ∼ 50–75 m. The Holocene and late Pleistocene slip rates may be typical for episodes of accelerated and slowed fault movement, respectively. The calculated late Pleistocene slip deficit may mean that the current accelerated Wasatch fault slip rate will extend well into the future.

Keywords

NeotectonicsWasatch fault slip rateCave sedimentsPaleomagnetismU-series datingTimpanogos Cave
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , September 2009 , pp. 275 - 283
Copyright
University of Washington

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