Hockley Fault Revisited: More Geophysical Data and New Evidence on the Fault Mechanism, Houston, Texas

Continuing sediment deposition and related deformation in the Gulf of Mexico cause faulting in coastal areas. These faults are aseismic and underlie much of the Gulf Coast area including the city of Houston in Harris County, Texas. Considering the average movement of these faults is ∼8 cm per decade in Harris County, the potential is high for structural damage to highways, industrial buildings, residential houses that cross these features. Using integrated geophysical data, we have investigated the Hockley fault, which is located in the northwest part of Harris County across Highway 290. Our magnetic, gravity, conductivity, and resistivity data displayed a fault anomaly whose location is consistent with the southern portion of the fault mapped by previous researchers at the precisely same location. Gravity data indicate a significant fault signature coincident with the magnetics and conductivity, where high gravity values are observed in the downthrown section. Farther north across Highway 290, the resist...