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Brief Report for Faults of Thebes Gap area, Sassafras Canyon faults (Class A) No. 1027d
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citation for this record: Harrison, R.W., compiler, 1997, Fault number 1027d, Faults of Thebes Gap area, Sassafras Canyon faults, in Quaternary fault and fold database of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey website, http://earthquakes.usgs.gov/regional/qfaults, accessed 11/24/2009 06:03 AM.
| Synopsis | General: Quaternary faulting at English Hill was first recognized in the early 1940s and described as a northeast-striking graben that down dropped the late Wisconsinan Peoria Loess (Stewart, 1942 #2825). No further investigations were made on faulting at English Hill until the 1990s when the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources/Division of Geology and Land Survey (MDNR/DGLS) began cooperative studies in the area. These studies included trenching and geophysical investigations. Quaternary faulting along the Commerce fault was first recognized in 1994 from exposures in a road cut in Commerce, Missouri; the Happy Hollow fault and Sassafras Canyon faults were discovered in 1997 from fault-exploration trenching; and Quaternary faulting along the Albrecht Creek fault was discovered from detailed geologic mapping in 1994. The possibility of Quaternary faulting at the intersection of the English Hill and Albrecht Creek faults was raised by detailed geologic mapping and was substantiated by the Lambert trench. Sections: This fault has 6 sections. The faults discussed in detail in the following sections are part of a complex network of faults mapped by Harrison (1999 #2821). The individual "sections" described below are not sections of a single, continuous fault, but rather are descriptions of parts of individual faults that are members of this complex system. The lengths of these individual faults is difficult to determine because they are part of an array of subparallel and interconnected faults that merge and diverge along strike. Because of these complex relations, it is difficult, if not impossible, to clearly identify terminations of specific faults. The major faults in the complex system of faults in the Thebes Gap area trend north-northeasterly to northeasterly, but the converging and diverging character of the individual faults makes it difficult to identify termination points and thus compute an average strike. |
| County(s) and State(s) | |
| AMS sheet(s) | Paducah |
| Physiographic province(s) | |
| Length (km) | This section is 0 km of a total fault length of 0 km. |
| Average strike | (for section) versus (for whole fault) |
| Sense of movement | Reverse; Thrust; Dextral |
| Dip Direction | NW; SW; SE; V |
| Historic earthquake | |
| Most recent prehistoric deformation | Late Quaternary (<130 ka) |
| Slip-rate category | Less than 0.2 mm/yr |
| Date and Compiler(s) | 1997 Richard W. Harrison, U.S. Geological Survey |
