U-065 - Hebgen Fault Bedrock Scarp
PI: Alexander Tye, Dr. Nathan Niemi, Dr. Timothy Stahl
Project Lead: Chris Crosby
Funding Source: University Funds, University of Michigan Turner Award
Location: SW Montana
Dates: 2017-07-30 to 2017-07-30
Project Summary
The active Hebgen Lake fault, most recently ruptured in 1959, has a limestone scarp which has been exposed over several successive events. Paleoseismic trenching and Schmidt hammer testing of the bedrock scarp provide evidence of two prehistoric events. This interpretation is in conflict with a cosmogenic dating study of the bedrock scarp, which favored five prehistoric events over a similar timeframe (Zreda and Noller, 1998). Surface roughness has been shown to vary in a step-wise fashion up limestone fault scarps (He et al., 2016), most likely due to exposure of discrete patches during successive earthquake events. We hope to apply TLS and photogrammetry to the Hebgen Lake limestone fault scarp to delineate successive earthquake rupture patches and provide a further constraint on the paleoseismic history of the fault.
Project Sites
Related Publications
- Tye, A., and Stahl, T. (2018), Field estimate of paleoseismic slip on a normal fault using the Schmidt hammer and terrestrial LiDAR: Methods and application to the Hebgen fault (Montana, USA) , Earth Surf. Process. Landforms, vol. 43, p. 2397–2408, doi: 10.1002/esp.4403