• journal_title：Geological Society of America Bulletin
• Contributor：Karl J. Mueller ; Thomas K. Rockwell
• Publisher：Geological Society of America
• Date：1995-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.1130/0016-7606(1995)107<0008:LQAOTL>2.3.CO;2
• journal_abbrev：Geological Society of America Bulletin
• issn：0016-7606
• volume：107
• issue：1
• firstpage：8

Faulted alluvial fans and bajadas along the central Laguna Salada fault zone in northern Baja California record a recurrent history of oblique-slip Holocene earthquakes. Alluvial surfaces, which range from late Pleistocene to historic in age have been progressively displaced along the base of the crystalline rangefront, as well as along more basinward fault splays in alluvium. The recurrence interval determined from displaced alluvial deposits that are dated by soil profile development is in the range of 1–2 ka, with a corresponding right lateral slip rate of ∼2–3 mm/yr, similar to that of the southern Elsinore fault in southern California. The most recent event along the fault zone is probably the widely felt earthquake of February 23, 1892. At least 22 km of the fault zone ruptured during this event, along both an oblique-dextral section of the northwest-striking Laguna Salada fault and the linked, northeast striking Cañon Rojo normal fault. The length of ground rupture and amount of displacement (4 m of dextral slip and 3.5 m of normal slip) suggest that the earthquake had a magnitude (Mw) of at least 7.1.