CONSTRAINTS ON PRESENT-DAY BASIN AND RANGE DEFORMATION FROM SPACE GEODESY

We use new space geodetic data from very long baseline interferometry and satellite laser ranging combined with other geodetic and geologic data to study contemporary deformation in the Basin and Range province of the western United States. Northwest motion of the central Sierra Nevada block relative to stable North America, a measure of integrated Basin and Range deformation, is 12.1+/-1.2 mm/yr oriented N38 degrees W+/-5 degrees (one standard error), in agreement with previous geolog ical estimates within uncertainties. This velocity reflects both east- west extension concentrated in the eastern Basin and Range and north-n orthwest directed right lateral shear concentrated in the western Basi n and Range. Fly, Nevada is moving west at 4.9+/-1.3 mm/yr relative to stable North America, consistent with dip-slip motion on the north st riking Wasatch fault and other north striking normal faults. Compariso n with ground-based geodetic data suggests that most of this motion is accommodated within similar to 50 lan of the Wasatch fault zone. Pale oseismic data for the Wasatch fault zone and slip rates based on seism ic energy release in the region both suggest much lower slip rates. Th e discrepancy may be explained by some combination of additional defor mation away from the Wasatch fault itself, aseismic slip, or a seismic rate that is anomalously low with respect to longer time averages. De formation in the western Basin and Range province is also largely conf ined to a relatively narrow boundary zone and in our study area is par titioned into the eastern California shear zone, accommodating 10.7+/- 1.6 mm/yr of north-northwest directed right-lateral shear, and a small component (similar to 1 mm/yr) of west-southwest - east-northeast ext ension. A slip rate budget for major strike-slip faults in our study a rea based on a combination of local geodetic or late Quaternary geolog ic data and the regional space geodetic data suggests the following ra tes of right-lateral slip: Owens Valley fault zone, 3.9+/-1.1 mm/yr; D eath Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone, 3.3+/-2.2 mm/yr; White Mountains fault zone in northern Owens Valley, 3.4+/-1.2 mm/yr; Fish Lake Valle y fault zone, 6.2+/-2.3 mm/yr. In the last few million years the locus of right-lateral shear in the region has shifted west and become more north trending as slip on the northwest striking Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone has decreased and is increasingly accommodated on th e north-northwest striking Owens Valley fault zone.