Nature of Thrust Faulting in Southern Inyo Mountains, Southeastern California: ABSTRACT

East of Lone Pine, California, on the west flank of the Inyo Mountains, a series of imbricate thrust faults appears in a narrow belt that trends roughly N30°W for a distance of approximately 17 m. The faults cut rocks ranging in age from Late Cambrian to Middle Triassic(?) and are cut by plutonic rocks possibly as old as Early Jurassic. The pattern exhibited by these faults is similar to that of folded overthrust faults generated by Link in model experiments. The faults decrease from approximately 50° dip to flat-lying, with increasingly higher structural position. They do not cut and offset one another, but converge upward with attendant decrease in dip. Thrust faults of the southern Inyo Mountains are thought to be closely related to other extensive, essentially flat-lying thrust faults on the north and east, because of the similarity in time of emplacement and sense of movement of the allochthons involved. A general alignment of trend, considering some left-lateral offset north of Darwin, and other similarities suggest that thrust faults in the Darwin district are a southeastward continuation of thrust faults exposed in the southern Inyo Mountains. Thrust faults exposed farther north and east may represent higher structural positions. End_of_Article - Last_Page 788------------