In the Geological Society of America journal Geology, Srisharan Shreedharan, Alexis Ault and Jordan Jensen combine varied disciplinary perspectives to explain why properties of fault rocks and geologic events that occurred more than a billion years ago portend worrisome seismic activity for the Beehive State's population center.
In the Geological Society of America journal Geology, Srisharan Shreedharan, Alexis Ault and Jordan Jensen combine varied disciplinary perspectives to explain why properties of fault rocks and geologic events that occurred more than a billion years ago portend worrisome seismic activity for the Beehive State's population center.
About 240 miles long, Utah’s Wasatch Fault stretches along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains from southern Idaho to central Utah, running through Salt Lake City and the state’s other population centers. It’s a seismically active normal fault, which means it is a fracture in the Earth’s crust that has moved many times in the past.
“Normal faults are observed along different tectonic systems, where the tectonic plates are moving apart,” says Utah State University geophysicist Srisharan Shreedharan. “The Wasatch Fault forms the eastern edge of the Basin and Range geologic province, which has stretched and broken over millions of years.”
Read more at: Utah State University
From left, USU Geosciences faculty member Srisharan Shreedharan and graduate student Lindsey Broderick collect rock samples from the Wasatch Fault near Brigham City, Utah. (Photo Credit: Alexis Ault)
