2008 National Seismic Hazard Maps-Fault parameters
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Fault Name State
Southern Sangre de Cristo fault New Mexico
GEOMETRY
Dip (degrees) 60/40/50
Dip direction W
Sense of slip normal
Rupture top (km) 0
Rupture bottom (km) 15
Rake (degrees) -90
Length (km) 104
MODEL VALUES
Probability of activity 1
Minimum magnitude 6.5
Maximum magnitude 7.42
b-value 0.8
Assigned Dip Fault-Parallel Slip Rate Width Annual Rate a-value Branch Weight
40 0.20 23.3 9.69e-05 1.303 0.2
50 0.17 19.6 6.83e-05 1.151 0.6
60 0.15 17.3 5.34e-05 1.044 0.2
Comments
The assigned vertical slip rate is based on the average of slip rate estimates for the southern Sangre de Cristo fault based on fault scarp data (Menges, 1988; 1990; 1990): (1) a post-middle Pleistocene (post-Bull Lake age) rate of 0.03 to 0.06 mm/yr, and (2) a post-Pliocene (post-4 Ma) rate of 0.12 to 0.23 mm/yr. Dip of fault changed to 50? based on redefined regional default value (Lund, 2006).
Selected References
Menges, C.M., 1990, Late Cenozoic rift tectonics and mountain-front landforms of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Taos, New Mexico, in Bauer, P.W., Lucas, S.G., Mawer, C.K., and McIntosh, W.C., eds., Tectonic development of the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society, 41st Field Conference, September 12-15, 1990, Guidebook, p. 113-122.
Menges, C.M., 1988, The tectonic geomorphology of mountain-front landforms in the northern Rio Grande rift near Taos, New Mexico: Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 339 p.
Menges, C.M., 1990, Late Quaternary fault scarps, mountain-front landforms, and Pliocene-Quaternary segmentation on the range-bounding fault zone, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico, in Krinitzsky, E.L., and Slemmons, D.B., eds., Neotectonics in earthquake evaluation: Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. 8, p. 131-156.
Lund, W.R., ed., 2006, Basin and Range Province Earthquake Working Group seismic-hazard recommendations to the U.S. Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Mapping Program: Utah Geological Survey Open-File Report 477, 23 p, ugspub.nr.utah.gov/publications/open_file_reports/OFR-477.pdf.