Variance In The Slip Rate Of The San Andreas Fault System From San Luis Obispo To Mexico

Event Center BC

During 2015, California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) students have used GPS to estimate slip rates for faults in eight different transects across the Pacific-North America plate boundary. In this study, the slip rates from these eight transects were compiled in order to understand the neotectonics along the central and southern California portion of the San Andreas Fault system. The results permit analysis of changes of slip rates along strike and how these changes may be explained by transfer of slip between different faults within the plate boundary system. Fault slip rates obtained by students in 2015 were also compared to previously published slip rates from the same or nearby locations obtained via both geodetic and geologic methods. The similarities and differences obtained by the different methods were graphed and analyzed to gain a better understanding of how the relative plate motion is distributed amongst the different faults that make up the Pacific-North American plate boundary. Aside from a few differences in data, the three methods analyzed agree that the slip rate of the San Andreas Fault is increasing south of where the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ) merges in.