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Sleeping Fault Threatens Sin City?

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

Photos

The Stateline Fault

"Ninety-nine percent of the population of Pahrump has no idea that they're right on top of the fault," said geophysicist Terry Pavlis at the University of Texas in El Paso. "This is close enough (to Vegas) that you'd get a pretty good shaking if this thing were to go."

The historic measurements of slip along the Stateline Fault suggested the fault was slipping laterally at a gentle rate of a millimeter or so per year. It was also judged to be more of a vertically-moving fault, like those throughout the Great Basin which built a fleet of mountain ranges and basins extending from eastern California through Nevada and into Utah.

As a strike-slip fault, however, it could be part of a growing set of north-south running faults in eastern California and western Nevada that some geologists suspect are gradually taking over the San Andreas' role as the major boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates.

More data on the current movements along the faults are possible because of a recently installed GPS survey system for the Yucca Mountain Project, said Wernicke. However, funding for analyzing data form the GPS system was recently cut by the Department of Energy, he said.

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

Howstuffworks.com: Earthquakes

Intro to Seismology from the USGS

The USGS Earthquake Hazard Program