Logs and paleoseismic interpretations from trenches 14C and 14D on the Bow Ridge fault, northeastern Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada

Detailed studies of trenches 14D and 14C on the Bow Ridge fault indicate two to three displacements and long recurrence intervals during the middle to late Quaternary. The main trace of the fault is marked by a thick (20--40 centimeters wide) subvertical shear zone coated with multiple carbonate-silica laminae and several generations of fine-grained fissure-fill debris. Exposed in the trenches is a vertically stacked sequence of thin (0.3--1.5 meters thick) fine-grained colluvial, alluvial, and eolian deposits that commonly contain smaller wedge-shaped units or several weakly to strongly developed buried paleosols, or both. The two to three surface-rupture events are recognized at discrete stratigraphic intervals in the sequence based on (1) incremental up-section decreases in offset of marker horizons, (b) upward terminations of shear zones, fissure fills, and fractures, and (c) the position of small scarp-derived colluvial wedges deposited adjacent to the fault above downfaulted marker horizons. Preferred estimates of the vertical displacement per event are 12 and 40 centimeters. Left-oblique striations are observed on carbonate fault laminae, which, if tectonic in origin, increase the vertical displacement by factors of 1.1 to 1.7, yielding preferred net slip displacements per event of 13 to 70 centimeters. Thermoluminescence ages of 48 {+-} 20 and 132 {+-} 23 thousand years bracket the ages of the events, which probably occurred near the bounding ages of the time interval. These age constraints suggest long, average recurrence intervals between the three events of 75 to 210 ky; the preferred values range between 100 to 140 ky. The small net cumulative displacement of two dated reference horizons yield very low fault slip rates of 0.002 to 0.007 millimeters per year; the preferred value is 0.003 millimeters per year.