Deborah J. Waiting

Structural framework of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone in south-central Texas

The Edwards Aquifer, the major source of water for many communities in central Texas, is threatened by population growth and development over its recharge zone. The location of the recharge and confined zones and the flow paths of the aquifer are controlled by the structure of and deformation processes within the Balcones fault system, a major system of predominantly down-to-the-southeast normal faults. We investigate the geologic structure of the Edwards Aquifer to assess the large-scale aquifer architecture, analyze fault offset and stratigraphic juxtaposition relationships, evaluate fault-zone deformation and dissolution and fault-system architecture, and investigate fault-block deformation and scaling of small-scale (intrablock) normal faults. Characterization of fault displacement shows a pattern of aquifer thinning that is likely to influence fault-block communication and flow paths. Flow-path constriction may be exacerbated by increased fault-segment connectivity associated with large fault displacements. Also, increased fault-zone deformation associated with larger-displacement faults is likely to further influence hydrologic properties. Overall, faulting is expected to produce strong permeability anisotropy such that maximum permeability is subhorizontal and parallel to fault-bedding intersections. At all scales, aquifer permeability is either unchanged or enhanced parallel to faults and in many cases decreased perpendicular to faults.

Development of Synthetic Layer Dip Adjacent to Normal Faults

Field analyses of normal faulting illustrate that synthetic layer dip associated with normal faults is a common feature of extensional fault systems. These synthetic dip panels are developed where layers on upthrown, downthrown, or both sides of a normal fault dip toward the downthrown side of the fault. Synthetic dip panels adjacent to normal faults should be expected at some scale in all normal fault systems. In addition to faults that developed in the strata with a regional dip, five fault-related mechanisms for the development of synthetic dip are faulted monocline (fault tip-line folding), antilistric fault bend, distributed shear, shear in relay zone of vertically and/or laterally segmented faults, and fault block impingement and lateral contraction. Development of synthetic dip accommodates a component of throw by tilting or folding, thereby reducing the offset or true displacement on the related normal faults. Fault block deformation is strongly dependent on the mechanisms that produce synthetic dip panels and may influence fault zone and fault block permeability. Depending on stratigraphic and structural relationships, synthetic dip panels can produce a downthrown closure for hydrocarbon trapping, provide fluid migration and/or production communication pathways across faults, or produce barriers to fluid communication across faults.

Orthogonal jointing during coeval igneous degassing and normal faulting, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

An orthogonal system of tube-bearing joints constitutes the oldest fractures in the Tiva Canyon Tuff at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The joints formed within a month of ignimbrite deposition, prior to major degassing. The system consists of (1) narrow, persistent, northeast-striking joint swarms with trace lengths typically greater than 5 m and between-joint spacings of less than 20 cm and (2) northwest-striking swarms that have a more en echelon geometry and greater between-joint spacings compared to the northeast-striking swarms. Between-swarm spacing for both trends is ∼50 m. Questions concerning the joints include the following: (1) What was the origin of driving stress(es) for formation of the joints, particularly as their orientations were not consistent with the regional stress geometry at the time of their formation? (2) What mechanism caused the horizontal principal stresses to be reoriented so as to yield an orthogonal geometry? (3) What insights can be developed for predicting joint geometry in unexposed rock volumes by understanding joint origin? These questions are important because the joints and other fractures may affect the performance of a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository within Yucca Mountain. To address these questions, we use new and existing field data about joint geometry and the relationships of joints to degassing structures, numerical modeling of fault behavior, and work by previous authors. Our interpretation begins with the initial ignimbrite eruption and deposition during caldera collapse. The ignimbrites were deposited over a preexisting topography that possibly included a shallow northwest-trending basin in the Yucca Mountain area. During initial ignimbrite cooling, joint swarms formed as elements of orthogonal fumarolic ridge systems where degassing was associated with vertical dilation. Both joint sets have unusual tubes that are interpreted to have formed during dilation and segmentation of joint faces resulting from lithophysae inflation in the cooling ignimbrite deposit. Modeling supports the interpretation that a combination of regional stresses and stress related to slip on local normal faults controlled the orientation of the joint swarms and favored the formation of the northeast-striking joints first. The faults might have moved in a stress field already perturbed by caldera collapse. Formation of the northwest-striking joints occurred after a local 90° switch of horizontal principal stress directions due to the presence of the northeast-striking swarms, possibly aided by differential compaction across the northwest-trending basin. Tube- bearing joints occur in all lithophysae-bearing lithostratigraphic units of the Topopah Spring Tuff, which is the stratigraphic interval for the proposed nuclear waste repository within Yucca Mountain. We conclude that the tube-bearing joints formed in the same manner and share similar geometric characteristics, adding a persistent joint population to the overall fracture system that influences hydrological and mechanical properties.

Analog modeling of normal faulting above Middle East domes during regional extension

We study the effects of planform dome shape on fault patterns developing with and without concurrent regional extension oriented oblique to the long axis of the dome. The motivation was the need to understand fault and fracture patterns in two adjacent mature hydrocarbon fields in the Middle East: one, an elliptical dome, and one, an irregularly shaped dome. The largest faults have throws of approximately 30 m (98 ft), which is close to the resolution limit of older two-dimensional seismic reflection data. The known fault trends are not parallel to the highest transmissivity direction but could form compartment boundaries. Fault and fracture patterns developed over the modeled domes provide insight into the populations of faults and fractures that are likely to exist in the reservoirs but have been undetected because they are at or below the resolution limit of reflection seismic data. Major domal structural elements, crestal fault systems, end splay systems, and radial faults are observed in modeled domes rising both with and without concurrent regional extension. Experimental results indicate that fault and fracture patterns are influenced by the effects of dome shape, regional extension, and relative timing of uplift with respect to regional extension. The expression of particular sets of faults and fractures associated with concurrent doming and regional extension depends on the interaction among regional extension, outer arc extension over the dome, and tangential extension around the dome margins. Our results also indicate that the two adjacent natural domes possibly experienced different kinematic histories from those previously interpreted.

Constraints on exhumation and extensional faulting in southwestern Nevada and eastern California, U.S.A., from zircon and apatite thermochronology

Eastern California and southwestern Nevada represent an area of Tertiary and Quaternary extensional and dextral transtensional deformation. We used zircon and apatite fission-track thermochronology to study the distribution and timing of tectonic exhumation resulting from extensional and transtensional detachment faulting in this area. Sampling efforts were focused on Paleozoic and Precambrian clastic sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks. Sixty-nine new apatite and zircon fission-track cooling ages from 50 samples, analyzed in conjunction with published fission-track data from the region, indicate a distinct population of young (Miocene) fission-track ages and a population of irregularly distributed older (pre-Miocene) fission-track ages. Miocene (young population) fission-track ages become younger toward the west—indicating westward migration of the cooling front, consistent with well-documented Miocene extension of the Basin and Range Province. The younging pattern is also consistent with west-northwest displacement of the hanging wall of a crustal-scale extensional fault system and consequent progressive footwall exhumation. The active trailing edge of the hanging wall of this system generally coincides with Death Valley. Migration rates of the cooling front in the footwall of this system are on the order of 10–11 mm/yr. Based on the distribution of the Miocene fission-track ages, we interpret that the crustal faults that defined the eastern edge of the detachment system originated as separate normal faults that were linked by the formation of a transfer fault. Extrapolation of apatite fission-track closure ages from two transects across the eastern margin of the Death Valley region suggests that exhumation along the eastern margin of the system continues beneath Death Valley today.

Numerical Simulation of Tsunami Run-Up and Inundation for the 2011 Tōhuku-Oki Tsunami: A Parametric Analysis for Tsunami Run-Up and Wave Height

This paper presents computational results for predicting earthquake-generated tsunami from a developed integrated computational framework. The computational framework encompasses the entire spectrum of modeling the earthquake-generated tsunami source, open-sea wave propagation, and wave run-up including inundation and on-shore effects. The present work develops a simplified source model based on pertinent local geologic and tectonic processes, observed seismic data (i.e., data obtained by inversion of seismic waves from seismographic measurements), and geodetic data (i.e., directly measured seafloor and land deformations). These source models estimated configurations of seafloor deformation used as initial waveforms in tsunami simulations. Together with sufficiently accurate and resolved bathymetric and topographic data, they provided the inputs needed to numerically simulate tsunami wave propagation, inundation and coastal impact. The present work systematically analyzes the effect of the tsunami source model on predicted tsunami behavior and the associated variability for the 2011 Tōhuku-Oki tsunami. Simulations were carried out for the 2011 Tōhuku -Oki Tsunami that took place on March 11, 2011, from an MW 9.1 earthquake. The numerical simulations were performed using the fully nonlinear Boussinesq hydrodynamics code, FUNWAVE-TVD (distributed by the University of Delaware). In addition, a sensitivity analysis was also carried out to study the effect of earthquake magnitude on the predicted wave height. The effect of coastal structure on the wave amplification at the shore is also studied. Simulated tsunami results for wave heights are compared to the available observational data from GPS (Global Positioning System) at the central Miyagi location.Copyright