Mount Diablo Thrust Fault

Locations of faults in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Mount Diablo Fault is the green quadrilateral near the center of the map.

The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault, also known as the Mount Diablo Blind Thrust, is a thrust fault in the vicinity of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California. The fault lies between the Calaveras Fault, the Greenville Fault, and the Concord Fault, all right-lateral strike-slip faults, and appear to transfer movement from the Calaveras and Greenville Faults to the Concord Fault, while continuing to uplift Mount Diablo.

Tectonic forces

The Pacific Plate is a major section of the Earth's crust, gradually expanding by the eruption of magma along the East Pacific Rise to the southeast. It is also being subducted far to the northwest into the Aleutian Trench under the North American Plate well north of San Francisco. In California, the plate borders the North American Plate along a transform boundary, the San Andreas Fault. The westward component of the North American Plate's motion and the irregularity of the San Andreas Fault results in some compressive force along the San Andreas and its associated faults, thus helping lift the Coast Ranges. The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault and the Great Valley Blind Thrust faults are consequences of this compression.

Movement along the Mount Diablo Thrust Fault includes crustal shortening of about 2.6 mm and uplift of about 1 mm per year.^[1]

Related faults

The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault is shown in light gray with a sawtooth edge (its eastern side is moving upward).

Compressive stresses are produced by offset and converging slip-strike motions between the Calaveras Fault and the Clayton-Marsh Creek-Greenville Fault which manifest in the Mount Diablo Thrust Fault.^[2]

Nearby cities

The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault underlays several cities and unincorporated communities in Contra Costa County: Alamo, Antioch, Blackhawk, Concord, Danville, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek.^[3]

Seismic parameters

The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault is approximately 25 km long, and dips at an angle of 38 degrees to the northeast. The Mount Diablo Thrust Fault is capable of generating an earthquake of magnitude M_W=6.7. The predicted rupture surface begins 8 km below the surface, and there is thus no surface expression of the fault, and a low likelihood of surface rupture in the event of a large earthquake on the fault. No large historic earthquakes are known to have occurred on the Mount Diablo Thrust Fault. The recurrence interval for large earthquakes along the fault is predicted to be about 400 years.^[4]

References

↑ Sawyer, Thomas L. (April 2015). "Characterizing rates of contractional deformation on the Mt. Diablo thrust fault, eastern San Francisco Bay region, northern California" (pdf). U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.2223.0567. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
↑ "The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, 100 Years Later". Online NewsHour, The Science Reports (PBS.org). March 20, 2006. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012.
↑ "2002 CALIFORNIA FAULT PARAMETERS - San Francisco Bay Region". California Geological Survey. 2003. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
↑ Working Group On California Earthquake Probabilities (May 31, 2003). "Earthquake Probabilities in the San Francisco Bay Region: 2002–2031". Open File Report 03-214. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-01-05.

Seismically active fault zones and tectonic blocks of California

Statewide Faults	San Andreas Fault

Faults, zones, and blocks of Southern California	Brawley Seismic Zone Chino Fault Elsinore Fault Zone Elysian Park Fault Garlock Fault Hosgri Fault Imperial Fault Zone Laguna Salada Fault Newport–Inglewood Fault Peninsular Ranges Puente Hills Fault Raymond Fault Rose Canyon Fault Salton Trough Salinian Block San Cayetano Fault San Felipe Fault Zone San Gabriel Fault San Jacinto Fault Zone Santa Maria River Fault Santa Ynez Fault Shoreline Fault Ventura Fault White Wolf Fault Whittier Fault Yorba Linda Fault

Faults and zones of Northern California	Bartlett Springs Fault Calaveras Fault Clayton-Marsh Creek-Greenville Fault Concord Fault Hayward Fault Zone Healdsburg Fault Maacama Fault Mendocino Fracture Zone Mendocino Triple Junction Mount Diablo Thrust Fault Monta Vista Fault Pleasanton Fault San Gregorio Fault San Pablo Fault Seal Cove Fault Serra Fault Silver Creek Fault Tesla Fault West Napa Fault

Sierra Nevada faults, zones, and blocks	Death Valley Fault Zone Furnace Creek Fault Zone Honey Lake Fault Zone Kern Canyon Fault Maria fold and thrust belt Owens Valley Fault Rescue Lineament-Bear Mountains fault zone Sierra Nevada Batholith Sierra Nevada Fault Sierra Nevada-Great Valley Block Smartville Block Walker Lane

Category California Geological Survey Seismic Hazards Mapping Act Mexico (list)

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