SCEC Award Number 10063 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title The birth and death of fault segments around fault bends in Southern California
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
MIchele Cooke University of Massachusetts Amherst
Other Participants Mariel Schottenfeld
SCEC Priorities A, A7, A10 SCEC Groups LAD, CDM, Geology
Report Due Date 02/28/2011 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
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Intellectual Merit The sequence of fault growth and abandonment within the claybox experiments is similar to the history of the San Andreas fault through the southern Big Bend where, within the past 500 ka, two strands of the fault have been abandoned. In particular the present-day strand of the San Andreas in this region is outboard of the Mill Creek strand that was active over 120ka. This evolution of oblique slip fault strands along the San Andreas is very similar to the evolution observed in the clay box. The processes of fault growth and abandonment in the claybox may shed insights into the processes that led to the development of the present-day active strand of the San Andreas.
Broader Impacts The project supported a SCEC intern as well as a fifth year undergraduate, who is now pursuing a MS at U of Arizona. Both the students are women (as is the PI, who is also hearing impaired). The SCEC intern, Jessica Moody, is african-american. The students performed the experiments and completed the mapping of the structures. Jessica developed an instructional lab manual that will be invaluable for training future students in experimental procedures.

The ad hoc partnership that has developed with UC Santa Cruz has been very critical for constraining the wet kaolin properties. The results of this collaboration will provide a tremendous boost for the use of wet koalin as an analog material in physical modeling labs around the world. Many labs presently use sand rather than clay because its properties are better studied. The collaboration with UC Satna Cruz fills this gap.
Exemplary Figure N/A