Multichannel seismic-reflection (MCS) data were collected in the California Continental Borderland
as part of southern California Earthquake Hazards Task. Five data acquisition cruises conducted
over a six-year span collected MCS data from offshore Santa Barbara, California, south to the
Exclusive Economic Zone boundary with Mexico. The primary mission was to map late Quaternary
deformation as well as identify and characterize fault zones that have potential to impact high
population areas of southern California. To meet its objectives, the project work focused on the
distribution, character, and relative intensity of active (i.e., Holocene) deformation along the
continental shelf and basins adjacent to the most highly populated areas. In addition, the project
examined the record of how deformation shifted in space and time to help
identify actively deforming structures that may constitute current significant seismic hazards.
The MCS data accessible through this report cover the first four years of survey activity and
include data from offshore Malibu coastal area west of Santa Monica, California, to the southern
survey limit offshore San Diego. The MCS data, which were collected with a 250-m-long, 24-channel
streamer, used a small generator-injector (GI) airgun source. This system provided optimum resolution of the
upper 1 to 2 km of sediment for mapping active fault systems. The report includes trackline maps
showing the location of the data, as well as both digital data files (SEG-Y) and images of all of the
profiles.
