Faults--Offshore of Bolinas Map Area, California

This part of DS 781 presents data for faults for the geologic and geomorphic map of the Offshore of Bolinas map area, California. The vector data file is included in "Faults_OffshoreBolinas.zip," which is accessible from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/781/OffshoreBolinas/data_catalog_OffshoreBolinas.html.

The Offshore of Bolinas map area straddles the right-lateral transform boundary between the North American and Pacific plates and is cut by several active faults that cumulatively form a distributed shear zone, including the San Andreas Fault, the eastern strand of the San Gregorio Fault, the Golden Gate Fault, and the Potato Patch Fault (Bruns and others, 2002; Ryan and others, 2008). These faults are covered by sediment (mostly unit Qms) with no seafloor expression, and are mapped using seismic-reflection data (see field activities S-8-09-NC and L-1-06-SF). The San Andreas Fault is the primary plate-boundary structure and extends northwest through the southern part of the map area before passing onshore at Bolinas Lagoon. This section of the San Andreas Fault has an estimated slip rate of 17 to 24 mm/yr (U.S. Geological Survey, 2010), and the devastating Great 1906 California earthquake (M 7.8) is thought to have nucleated on the San Andreas a few kilometers south of this map area offshore of San Francisco (e.g., Bolt, 1968; Lomax, 2005).
The San Andreas Fault forms the boundary between two distinct basement terranes, Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous melange and graywacke sandstone of the Franciscan Complex to the east, and Late Cretaceous granitic and older metamorphic rocks of the Salinian block to the west. Franciscan Complex rocks (unit KJf, undivided) form seafloor outcrops adjacent to the shoreline southeast of Stinson Beach that are commonly continuous with onshore coastal outcrops.

Faults were primarily mapped by interpretation of seismic reflection profile data (see field activities S-8-09-NC and L-1-06-SF). The seismic reflection profiles were collected between 2006 and 2009.

References Cited

Bolt, B.A., 1968, The focus of the 1906 California earthquake: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 58, p. 457-471.

Bruns, T.R., Cooper, A.K., Carlson, P.R., and McCulloch, D.S., 2002, Structure of the submerged San Andreas and San Gregorio fault zones in the Gulf of Farallones as inferred from high-resolution seismic-reflection data, in Parsons, T. (ed.), Crustal structure of the coastal and marine San Francisco Bay region, California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1658, p. 77-117.

Lomax, A., 2005, A reanalysis of the hypocentral location and related observations for the Great 1906 California earthquake: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 95, p. 861-877.

Ryan, H.F., Parsons, T., and Sliter, R.W., 2008. Vertical tectonic deformation associated with the San Andreas fault zone offshore of San Francisco, California. Tectonphysics, 429 (1-2), p. 209-224.

U.S. Geological Survey and California Geological Survey, 2010, Quaternary fault and fold database for the United States, accessed April 5, 2012, from USGS website: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/qfaults/.