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Minor 1995
Minor, S.A. (1995). Superposed local and regional paleostresses: Fault-slip analysis of Neogene extensional faulting near coeval caldera complexes, Yucca Flat, Nevada. Journal of Geophysical Research 100: doi: 10.1029/95JB00078. issn: 0148-0227.

Numerous reduced stress tensors are computed by multiple inversions of 906 temporally and spatially partitioned fault-slip data from the Yucca Flat region in the southwest Nevada volcanic field to constrain the Neogene paleostress and faulting history and to investigate how the regional tectonic stress field was affected by local caldera magmatism. Perturbed, shallow (<400 m), pre-11 Ma paleostress configurations, determined west and northwest of present (post-11 Ma) Yucca Flat basin, existed during mild extensional faulting and are attributed to superposition of transient caldera-magmatic stresses on the regional stress field. Northwest of Yucca Flat a progressive shift in least principal stress (&sgr;3) directions near known calderas located 5--15 km to the west occurred under a normal-slip stress state during caldera development between about 15 and 13 Ma. A brief (~0.5 m.y.) change to a strike-slip conjugate strike-slip faulting. This stress state was most distinct, relative to a normal-slip state, near calderas where stress solutions and fault relations indicate closer affinities to a reverse-slip state. Inferred 11.6--11.45 Ma paleostress tensors indicate radial tension associated with either initial caldera collapse or local post-collapse topographic modification of the stress field. Post-11 Ma normal-slip stress tensors are associated with normal- and oblique-slip faults that accommodated subsidence and eastward extension of Yucca Flat basin away from the caldera complexes. These tensors do not indicate stress modifications due to residual caldera-related effects and thus were used to infer post-11 Ma regional stress changes. The stress field has rotated as much as 65¿ clockwise since 11 Ma during extensional development of Yucca Flat basin, with most of the rotation and extension occurring before about 8.5 Ma. Results suggest that shallow magmatism and caldera development can strongly alter extensional tectonic stress fields, fault patterns, and slip directions in the uppermost crust out to distances of roughly two magma chamber radii away from a magma body. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1995

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Abstract

Keywords
Structural Geology, Fractures and faults, Tectonophysics, Continental tectonics—extensional, Tectonophysics, Stresses—crust and lithosphere
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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