Constraints from GPS on Block Kinematics of the Transition between the Southern Walker Lane and the Basin and Range Province

The southern Walker Lane (SWL) is a part of the Eastern California Shear Zone that lies north of the Mojave region, bounded by the Garlock Fault to the south, the Sierra Nevada to the west, the Basin and Range to the east and by Mono Lake to the north. The region includes many northwest striking right-lateral strike slip and sub-parallel normal faults (e.g. Death Valley/Furnace Creek, Fish Lake Valley, Owens Valley), which together accommodate ~25% of the Pacific/North American relative motion. For many of these faults, and the system as a whole, there appears to be a discrepancy between geodetically and geologically inferred fault slip rates. Since the installation of the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), and the Nevada Earthquake Response Network (NEARNET) of the University of Nevada, Reno, many recently obtained high- precision GPS data are now available to place improved constraints on the pattern and rates of crustal deformation of this region. In this study we use a block modeling methodology to estimate block motions and fault slip rates from GPS velocities of PBO, NEARNET and BARGEN continuous sites. Time series were obtained from raw RINEX data that we processed using the GIPSY-OASIS II software from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory together with the Ambizap software for ambiguity resolution. We have additionally included earlier published campaign-style velocities, in those areas where we do not have better coverage from other continuous/semi-continuous networks. Geologic slip rates have been obtained from the published literature. We solve for the motion of blocks using the GPS velocities that have been adjusted based on the viscoelastic modeling to estimate long term motion. To evaluate the consistency between the geologic and geodetic data, we compare long-term fault slip to slip rates inferred from geodetic results obtained over <10 years. We account for transient earthquake cycle effects by modeling the viscoelastic postseismic relaxation following major historic earthquakes in the region. In particular we model the 1999 Hector Mine, 1992 Landers, 1952 Kern County, and 1872 Owens Valley earthquakes. GPS velocities adjusted for transient effects indicate that there is a distinct NW trend in the motions of the blocks with rates decreasing to the east. However, deformation rates are greater than zero east of the SWL in the Basin and Range. The preliminary results obtained from the block model indicate significant slip at the easternmost edge of the model, in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain and the Stateline fault.