Oligocene and Miocene paleogeography of central California and displacement along the San Andreas fault

GSA Bulletin
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Abstract

Recently completed sedimentologic and petrologic studies of Oligocene and Miocene strata in the Temblor Range (San Joaquin basin) and Santa Cruz Mountains (La Honda basin) permit detailed reconstructions of paleogeography, as well as new estimates of displacement along the San Andreas fault. During the Oligocene and Miocene, the San Joaquin and La Honda basins were contiguous. The southwestern margin of the San Joaquin-La Honda basin was tectonically unstable and paleogeographically complex, with several small deep-sea fans fed by sediment derived from nearby subaerial uplifts of Franciscan and granitic basement. One of these deep-sea fans, represented by the Temblor Formation of the southern Temblor Range and the Vaqueros Sandstone of the central Santa Cruz Mountains, apparently has been displaced about 315 to 320 km by post-early Miocene (post-Zemorrian, about 23 Ma) right-lateral slip along the San Andreas fault. This new estimate of displacement places an additional constraint on interpretations of San Andreas slip history, but ambiguities remain. The time of initiation of San Andreas displacement is poorly known, and available data do not permit discrimination between a history of relatively continuous slip versus a history of episodic slip.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Oligocene and Miocene paleogeography of central California and displacement along the San Andreas fault
Series title GSA Bulletin
DOI 10.1130/0016-7606(1989)101<0711:OAMPOC>2.3.CO;2
Volume 101
Issue 5
Year Published 1989
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Description 20 p.
First page 711
Last page 730
Country United States
State California
Other Geospatial San Andreas Fault
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