Geology topics

Franklin F. Foit

Publications and source records attributed to Franklin F. Foit.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2016

Active faulting on the Wallula fault zone within the Olympic-Wallowa lineament, Washington State, USA

The Wallula fault zone is an integral feature of the Olympic-Wallowa lineament, an ∼500-km-long topographic lineament oblique to the Cascadia plate boundary, extending from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to Walla Walla, Washington. The structure and past earthquake activity of the Wallula fault zone are important because of nearby infrastructure, and also because the fault zone defines part of the Olympic-Wallowa lineament in south-central Washington and suggests that the Olympic-Wallowa lineament may have a structural origin. We used aeromagnetic and ground magnetic data to locate the trace of the Wallula fault zone in the subsurface and map a quarry exposure of the Wallula fault zone near Finley, Washington, to investigate past earthquakes along the fault. We mapped three main packages of rocks and unconsolidated sediments in an ∼10-m-high quarry exposure. Our mapping suggests at least three late Pleistocene earthquakes with surface rupture, and an episode of liquefaction in the Holocene along the Wallula fault zone. Faint striae on the master fault surface are subhorizontal and suggest reverse dextral oblique motion for these earthquakes, consistent with dextral offset on the Wallula fault zone inferred from offset aeromagnetic anomalies associated with ca. 8.5 Ma basalt dikes. Magnetic surveys show that the Wallula fault actually lies 350 m to the southwest of the trace shown on published maps, passes directly through deformed late Pleistocene or younger deposits exposed at Finley quarry, and extends uninterrupted over 120 km.

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USGS2013

Holocene tectonics and fault reactivation in the foothills of the north Cascade Mountains, Washington

We use LiDAR imagery to identify two fault scarps on latest Pleistocene glacial outwash deposits along the North Fork Nooksack River in Whatcom County, Washington (United States). Mapping and paleoseismic investigation of these previously unknown scarps provide constraints on the earthquake history and seismic hazard in the northern Puget Lowland. The Kendall scarp lies along the mapped trace of the Boulder Creek fault, a south-dipping Tertiary normal fault, and the Canyon Creek scarp lies in close proximity to the south-dipping Canyon Creek fault and the south-dipping Glacier Extensional fault. Both scarps are south-side-up, opposite the sense of displacement observed on the nearby bedrock faults. Trenches excavated across these scarps exposed folded and faulted late Quaternary glacial outwash, locally dated between ca. 12 and 13 ka, and Holocene buried soils and scarp colluvium. Reverse and oblique faulting of the soils and colluvial deposits indicates at least two late Holocene earthquakes, while folding of the glacial outwash prior to formation of the post-glacial soil suggests an earlier Holocene earthquake. Abrupt changes in bed thickness across faults in the Canyon Creek excavation suggest a lateral component of slip. Sediments in a wetland adjacent to the Kendall scarp record three pond-forming episodes during the Holocene—we infer that surface ruptures on the Boulder Creek fault during past earthquakes temporarily blocked the stream channel and created an ephemeral lake. The Boulder Creek and Canyon Creek faults formed in the early to mid-Tertiary as normal faults and likely lay dormant until reactivated as reverse faults in a new stress regime. The most recent earthquakes—each likely M w > 6.3 and dating to ca. 8050–7250 calendar years B.P. (cal yr B.P.), 3190–2980 cal. yr B.P., and 910–740 cal. yr B.P.—demonstrate that reverse faulting in the northern Puget Lowland poses a hazard to urban areas between Seattle (Washington) and Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada).

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USGS2013

Paleoseismology of a possible fault scarp in Wenas Valley, central Washington

In October 2009, two trenches excavated across an 11-kilometer-long scarp at Wenas Valley in central Washington exposed evidence for late Quaternary deformation. Lidar imagery of the Wenas Valley illuminated the west-northwest-trending, 2- to 8-meter-high scarp as it bisected alluvial fans developed at the mouths of canyons along the south side of Umtanum Ridge. The alignment of the scarp and aeromagnetic lineaments suggested that the scarp may be a product of and controlled by the same tectonic structure that produced the magnetic lineaments. Several large landslides mapped in the area demonstrated the potential for large mass-wasting events in the area. In order to test whether the scarp was the result of an earthquake-generated surface rupture or a landslide, trenches were excavated at Hessler Flats and McCabe Place. The profiles of bedrock and soil stratigraphy that underlie the scarp in each trench were photographed, mapped, and described, and a sequence of depositional and deformational events established for each trench. The McCabe Place trench exposed a sequence of volcaniclastic deposits overlain by soils and alluvial deposits separated by three unconformities. Six normal faults and two possible reverse faults deformed the exposed strata. Crosscutting relations indicated that up to five earthquakes occurred on a blind reverse fault, and a microprobe analysis of lapilli suggested that the earliest faulting occurred after 47,000 years before present. The Hessler Flat trench exposure revealed weathered bedrock that abuts loess and colluvium deposits and is overlain by soil, an upper sequence of loess, and colluvium. The latter two units bury a distinctive paloesol.

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