Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone, Silver Strand section (Class A) No. 127g
Last Review Date: 1999-06-01
citation for this record: Treiman, J.A., and Lundberg, M., compilers, 1999, Fault number 127g, Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone, Silver Strand section, in Quaternary fault and fold database of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey website, https://earthquakes.usgs.gov/hazards/qfaults, accessed 04/25/2024 10:25 AM.
| Synopsis |
General:
Data on this fault zone is variable. Fault locations onshore and in some limited offshore areas are generally well located. The large central portion of the fault zone is offshore and less well defined. Urbanization in the San Diego area has also somewhat limited the accurate location of some of the fault strands. The northern onshore portion is demonstrably Holocene based on numerous geotechnical studies as well as the historic Long Beach earthquake. The southern onshore portion, through San Diego, is also demonstrably active based on geotechnical and research studies. The intermediate offshore portion is presumed Holocene based on sparse evidence of displacement of presumed young Holocene sediments offshore as well as its continuity to the better-defined onshore sections. There are three detailed study sites along the fault zone. Grant and others (1997 #1366) reported evidence for 3–5 earthquakes in the past 11.7 ka, but stated that the recurrence interval varied from 1,200 yr to 3,000 yr. Slip rate is not fully constrained, but appears to be approximately 1.0±0.5 mm/yr in the north, increasing to 1.5±0.5 mm/yr in the south. Sections: This fault has 7 sections. Section designations after Fischer and Mills (1991 #6468) who designated three segments offshore, two segments onshore south of La Jolla and one southern segment within the Los Angeles basin (thereby implying a northern, 7th segment as well). Sections were distinguished based on asperities (bends), steps and seismicity. The division of the Los Angeles basin part of the fault zone into two segments is based on slight differences in geometry (discussed by several workers, including Wright (1991 #5950), seismicity differences (Hauksson, 1987 #6475), and the subsurface extent of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake rupture (Wesnousky, 1986 #5305; Hauksson and Gross, 1991 #6476). Fischer (1992 #6467) designates one additional segment offshore. Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (1995 #4945) and Petersen and others (1996 #4860) identify three sections: Newport-Inglewood, Newport-Inglewood offshore and Rose Canyon (the latter including offshore faults north to Oceanside). |
| Name comments |
General: Entire fault zone referred to as Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone by Greene and others (1979 #6470).
Newport-Inglewood fault: onshore structural zone first recognized as a zone of folding by Mendenhall (1905 #6488). Hamlin (1918 #6473) associated seismicity and faulting with the zone; first mapped and named by Taber (1920 #6491) as the Inglewood-Newport-San Onofre fault; called Newport-Inglewood fault by Hoots (1931 #5921). Eaton (1933 #6463) was first to suggest continuity to Rose Canyon fault in the San Diego area; offshore portion was called the South Coast Offshore fault by utility consultants (Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., 1972 #6490), and the South Coast Offshore Zone of Deformation by Woodward-Clyde Consultants (1979 #6496).
Rose Canyon fault: Fairbanks (1893 #6466) suggested presence of fault and Ellis and Lee (1919 #6465) were the first to show part of the fault on a map. Hanna (1926 #6474) referred to the Soledad Mountain fault; Hertlein and Grant (1939 #6477) were the first to refer to the Rose Canyon fault; Kennedy (1975 #6478) and Kennedy and others (1975 #6480) mapped the fault in greater detail. See sections 127f and g for additional fault strands. Section: Section name from Fischer and Mills (1991 #6468); main faults are the offshore Silver Strand, Spanish Bight, and Coronado faults, but also includes several unnamed offshore faults as well as the (onshore) San Diego fault, and a zone of active unnamed faults in eastern downtown area (informally referred to as the "downtown graben" (Treiman, 2002 #6495); offshore faults named by Kennedy and others (1977 #6481); offshore faults were shown, unnamed, by Moore and Kennedy (1975 #6489); faults probably extend south of the international border; San Diego fault was named by Elder-Mills (1982 #6464); "downtown graben" identified by Treiman (1991 #6493). Section extends from downtown San Diego to the International border (offshore). Fault ID: Refers to numbers 434 (Potrero, Inglewood and Avalon-Compton faults), 439 (South Branch, Newport-Inglewood fault zone), 440 (North Branch, Newport-Inglewood fault zone), 441 (Cherry-Hill, Reservoir Hill and Seal Beach faults), 465 (Newport Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone, offshore), 487 (Mission Bay fault), 490 (Coronado fault, offshore), 490A (Spanish Bight fault, offshore), 491 (Rose Canyon fault zone), 492 (Old Town fault), and 493A (Silver Strand fault, offshore) of Jennings (1994 #2878). Also refers to numbers 30 (Newport-Inglewood, north section) and 31 (Newport-Inglewood, south section) of Hecker and others (1998 #6118), and to numbers 25 (Inglewood fault), 26 (Potrero fault), 27 (Avalon-Compton fault), 28 (Cherry-Hill fault), 29 (Reservoir Hill fault), 30 (Newport-Inglewood North Branch), 31 (Newport-Inglewood, South Branch), and 32 (Faults offshore of San Clemente) of Ziony and Yerkes (1985 #5931). |
| County(s) and State(s) |
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA |
| Physiographic province(s) |
LOWER CALIFORNIAN |
| Reliability of location |
Good Compiled at 1:250,000 and unspecified scale. Comments: Location of fault from Qt_flt_ver_3-0_Final_WGS84_polyline.shp (Bryant, W.A., written communication to K.Haller, August 15, 2017) attributed to Clarke and others. (1987), Kennedy and Clarke (1999), Kleinfelder West, Inc. (2013), and Treiman (2002).
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| Geologic setting |
This fault zone is a major structural element within the Peninsular Ranges. Both onshore, to the north, and in the offshore region the fault zone separates contrasting Mesozoic basement terrane-Catalina Schist on the west and metasediments, intrusives and volcanics to the east (Yerkes and others, 1965 #5930). The onshore Los Angeles basin reach of the fault zone is marked by a northwesterly trending line of generally en echelon anticlinal folds and faults that extends 40 miles from Newport Mesa to the Cheviot Hills along the western side of the Los Angeles Basin (Barrows, 1974 #6460); the zone is tentatively extended northward to the Santa Monica [101] and Hollywood [102] faults by Wright (1991 #5950). The onshore structural zone is an important petroleum-producing region. The offshore reach of the fault zone continues southeastward until offshore of Oceanside where it bends and steps and continues on a more south-southeast trend, paralleling the coastline. The Rose Canyon fault [127e, 127f] comes onshore at La Jolla and is characterized by zones of compression and extension associated with restraining and releasing bends in the faults. The fault zone is locally more than 1 km wide and is composed of both dip-slip and strike-slip en echelon faults that together extend from La Jolla Cove 50 km to San Diego Bay and beyond on the south (Treiman, 1993 #6494).
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| Length (km) | This section is 23 km of a total fault length of 209 km. |
| Average strike | N2°W (for section) versus N29°W,N27°W,N31°W (for whole fault) |
| Sense of movement |
Right lateral, Normal
Comments: Normal component is associated with broader trans-tensional graben centered on San Diego Bay; dextral movement is assumed based on style of faulting to the north [127f].
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| Dip |
50° E. to vertical
Comments: Spanish Bight and Coronado faults dip 73–90° E.; Silver Strand fault dips as shallow as 50–55° E.; other unnamed faults dip east or west at 65–90°.
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| Paleoseismology studies |
Site 127-3, Coronado Bridge: More than three-hundred lines of high-resolution seismic reflection data provided good definition to the location of submarine faults and how high faulting occurred in the young stratigraphic section (Kennedy and Clarke, 1999 #6482). Holocene faulting was documented based on dating faulted sediments utilizing 14C, aminostratigrapic and paleontologic analyses (Kennedy and Clarke, 1999 #6483).
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| Geomorphic expression |
Large-scale features include depression of San Diego Bay; intermediate- to small-scale features include the Spanish Bight and eroded scarps (Treiman, 1993 #6494; Treiman, 2002 #6495).
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| Age of faulted surficial deposits | Youngest dated faulted deposits (offshore) are 4,435±115 yr, but faults extend higher up-section ; youngest onshore faulting is younger than 3,230±40 yr and perhaps within past 300–500 yr (summarized in Treiman, 2002 #6495). |
| Historic earthquake | |
| Most recent prehistoric deformation |
latest Quaternary (<15 ka)
Comments: Onshore (summarized in Treiman, 2002 #6495) and offshore (Kennedy and Clarke, 1999 #6482) (Kennedy and Clarke, 1999 #6483) evidence indicate last event was within past 5,000 yr, possibly within past 500 yr.
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| Recurrence interval | |
| Slip-rate category |
Between 1.0 and 5.0 mm/yr
Comments: Assigned slip-rate category based on minimum onshore slip rate for section 127f; slip at surface may be distributed among several faults that probably merge at depth. |
| Date and Compiler(s) |
1999
Jerome A. Treiman, California Geological Survey Matthew Lundberg, California Geological Survey |
| References |
#6460 Barrows, A.G., 1974, A review of the geology and earthquake history of the Newport-Inglewood structural zone, southern California: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Report 114, 115 p. #8043 Clarke, S.H., Jr., Greene, H.G., Kennedy, M.P., Vedder, J.G., with contributions by Legg, M.R., 1987, Geologic map of the inner-southern California continental margin, Map No. 1A (Geology), in Greene, H.G., and Kennedy, M.P., eds., Geology of the inner-southern California continental margin: California Division of Mines and Geology California Continental Margin Geologic Map Series, Area 1 of 7, map scale 1:250,000. #6463 Eaton, J.E., 1933, Long Beach, California earthquake of March 10, 1933: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 17, p. 732-738. #6464 Elder-Mills, D., 1982, Recognition and age of the San Diego fault, San Diego, California: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 14, no. 4, p. 161. #6465 Ellis, A.J., and Lee, C.H., 1919, Geology and groundwaters of the western part of San Diego County, California: U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 446, 321 p. #6466 Fairbanks, H.W., 1893, Geology of San Diego County-Also portions of Orange and San Bernardino Counties: California Mining Bureau 11th Annual Report, p. 76-120. #6467 Fischer, P.J., 1992, Neotectonics of the Newport-Inglewood and Palos Verdes fault zones along the offshore margins of the greater Los Angeles basin, in Association of Engineering Geologists, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting, p. 603-615. #6468 Fischer, P.J., and Mills, G.I., 1991, The offshore Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone, California: structure, segmentation and tectonics, in Abbott, P.L., and Elliott, W.J., eds., Environmental perils San Diego region: San Diego Association of Geologists, October 20, 1991, p. 17-36. #1366 Grant, L.B., Waggoner, J.T., Rockwell, T.K., and von Stein, C., 1997, Paleoseismicity of the north branch of the Newport-Inglewood fault zone in Huntington Beach, California, from cone penetrometer test data: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 87, p. 277-293. #6470 Greene, H.G., Bailey, K.A., Clarke, S.H., Ziony, J.I., and Kennedy, M.P., 1979, Implications of fault patterns of the inner California continental borderland between San Pedro and San Diego, in Abbott, P.L., and Elliot, W.J., eds., Earthquakes and other perils, San Diego region: San Diego Association of Geologists, Geological Society of America field trip, November, 1979, p. 21–28. #6473 Hamlin, H., 1918, Earthquakes in southern California: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 8, p. 20-24. #6474 Hanna, M.A., 1926, Geology of the La Jolla quadrangle, California: University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Science, v. 16, no. 7, p. 187-246. #6475 Hauksson, E., 1987, Seismotectonics of the Newport-Inglewood fault zone in the Los Angeles basin, southern California: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 77, p. 539-561. #6476 Hauksson, E., and Gross, S., 1991, Source parameters of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 81, p. 81-98. #6118 Hecker, S., Kendrick, K.J., Ponti, D.J., and Hamilton, J.C., 1998, Fault map and database for southern California, Long Beach 30'x60' quadrangle: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-129, http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/research/seismology/scfaults/lb/index.html. #6477 Hertlein, L.G., and Grant, U.S., IV, 1939, Geology and oil possibilities of southwestern San Diego County: California Journal of Mines and Geology, v. 35, no. 1, p. 57-78. #5921 Hoots, H.W., 1931, Geology of the eastern part of the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 165-C, p. 83-134, scale 1:24,000. #2878 Jennings, C.W., 1994, Fault activity map of California and adjacent areas, with locations of recent volcanic eruptions: California Division of Mines and Geology Geologic Data Map 6, 92 p., 2 pls., scale 1:750,000. #6478 Kennedy, M.P., 1975, Geology of the western San Diego metropolitan area, California-Del Mar, La Jolla, and Point Loma quadrangles, in Geology of the San Diego metropolitan area, California: California Division of Mines and Geology Bulletin 200, p. 9-39. #6482 Kennedy, M.P., and Clarke, S.H., 1999, Analysis of late Quaternary faulting in San Diego Bay and hazard to the Coronado bridge: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, Open-File Report 97-10A, 25 p., 3 pls., scale 1:12,000. #6483 Kennedy, M.P., and Clarke, S.H., 1999, Age of faulting in San Diego Bay in the vicinity of the Coronado bridge—An addendum to—Analysis of late Quaternary faulting in San Diego Bay and hazard to the Coronado bridge: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, Open-File Report 97-10B, 12 p., 2 pls., scale 1:3,000. #6480 Kennedy, M.P., Tan, S.S., Chapman, R.H., and Chase, G.W., 1975, Character and recency of faulting, San Diego metropolitan area, California: California Division of Mines and Geology Special Report 123, 33 p, 2 plates, map scale 1:50,000. #6481 Kennedy, M.P., Welday, E.E., Borchardt, G., Chase, G.W., and Chapman, R.H., 1977, Studies on surface faulting and liquefaction as potential earthquake hazards in urban San Diego, California: Technical report to U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, under Contract 14-08-0001-15858. #8173 Kleinfelder West, Inc., 2013, North side fault study, San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California: Unpublished consulting report, Kleinfelder West Project No. 128500 dated April 2, 2013, plate 4, (CGS File C-1017). #6488 Mendenhall, W.C., 1905, Development of underground waters in the western coastal plain region of southern California: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply and Irrigation Paper 139, 105 p. #6489 Moore, G.W., and Kennedy, M.P., 1975, Quaternary faults at San Diego Bay, California: U.S. Geological Survey, Journal of Research, v. 3, no. 5, p. 589-595. #4860 Petersen, M.D., Bryant, W.A., Cramer, C.H., Cao, T., Reichle, M.S., Frankel, A.D., Lienkaemper, J.J., McCrory, P.A., and Schwartz, D.P., 1996, Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for the State of California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 96-08 (also U.S. Geological Open-File Report 96-706), 33 p. #6490 Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., 1972, Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., [1970-72], San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, units 2 and 3, preliminary safety analysis report: Technical report to U.S Atomic Energy Commission, 5 vols., amendments 1-15. #6491 Taber, S., 1920, The Inglewood earthquake in southern California, June 21,1920: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 10, p. 129-145. #6493 Treiman, J.A., 1991, Rose Canyon fault zone, San Diego County, California: California Division of Mines and Geology Fault Evaluation Report FER-216, July 10, 1990, revised January 25, 1991, 14 p. #6494 Treiman, J.A., 1993, The Rose Canyon fault zone, southern California: California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 93-02, 45 p., 3 pls., scale 1:100,00 and 1:24,000. #6495 Treiman, J.A., 2002, Silver Strand fault, Coronado fault, Spanish Bight fault, San Diego fault, and Downtown Graben, Southern Rose Canyon fault zone, San Diego, California: California Division of Mines and Geology Fault Evaluation Report FER-245. #5305 Wesnousky, S.G., 1986, Earthquakes, Quaternary faults, and seismic hazards in California: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 91, no. B12, p. 12,587-12,631. #6496 Woodward-Clyde Consultants, 1979, Report of the evaluation of maximum earthquake and site ground motion parameters associated with the Offshore Zone of Deformation, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station: Technical report to Southern California Edison, June 1979, 30 p. #4945 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 1995, Seismic hazards in southern California—Probable earthquakes, 1994 to 2024: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 85, no. 2, p. 379-439. #5950 Wright, T.L., 1991, Structural geology and tectonic evolution of the Los Angeles Basin, California, in Biddle, K.T., ed., Active margin basin: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 52, p. 35–134. #5930 Yerkes, R.F., McCulloh, T.H., Schoellhamer, J.E., and Vedder, J.G., 1965, Geology of the Los Angeles Basin, California—An introduction: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 420-A, 57 p. #5931 Ziony, J.I., and Yerkes, R.F., 1985, Evaluating earthquake and surface faulting potential, in Ziony, J.I., ed., Evaluating earthquake hazards in the Los Angeles region—An earth-science perspective: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1360, p. 43–91. |