Identification and interpretation of tectonic features from ERTS-1 imagery

Abstract

The author has identified the following significant results. The transverse faults observed in the central Coast Ranges of California are believed to represent the remnants of a major system of shear faults older than the San Andreas system. The transverse shear system is believed to have developed in the Mesozoic when the Pacific Plate was advancing under the North American Plate. Shear faults thus developed due to unequal rates of underthrusting. This tectonic model indicates that the intrusive belt of the proto-Sierra Nevada and the belt of eugeosynclinal sedimentary belt (Franciscan group) which lay to the west were both subjected to regional left-handed shear. Later development of the San Andreas system as transform faults of the East Pacific Rise changes the tectonic style to right-lateral tangential. The model explains the peculiar distribution of the Franciscan rocks in the Diablo Range east of the San Andreas fault and in Santa Lucia Range west of Nacimiento fault and the presence of Sierra Nevada type granitic blocks in between the two faults in the Salinia block. This model is also consistent with an analysis of the Texas and Parras shears which indicates that the southwestern part of North America has been subjected to a major left-lateral regional shear before the development of the San Andreas fault system