Introduction Postulated to be the result of either a long-runout landslide, or a structural pop-up, the Poverty Hills present a unique problem in the geologic community. Located on the western-most edge of the Basin and Range Province in eastern California (Fig.1), and within the Owens Valley basin, flanked by the Sierra Nevada and Inyo/White mountain ranges to the west and east, respectively. The hills are of particular interest as they represent an unusual combination of lithologies, structures, and a geomorphology that is inconsistent for the basin. Using geophysical methods, I hope to infer the source of this outcrop. A long-runout landslide, or a structural flower system is currently proposed to explain the Poverty Hills; previous
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The Owens Valley is a structural trough that has been dropped down as a graben along regional scale normal faults that separate it structurally from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west, and the White Mountains to the east (Pakiser, et al. 1964). Measured at 121 km north to south and it encompasses roughly 1400 square kilometers, the Owens Valley includes such features as hot springs, the basal Bishop Tuff from the Long Valley Caldera eruption which occurred approximately 750,000 years ago (Southworth, 2012), the Poverty Hills, Alabama Hills, and the Owens Valley dry lake bed found on the valley’s southern end. Of particular interest is the Big Pine Volcanic Field which offers great opportunity for relative dating of the Poverty Hills (Fig. 2). The Owens Valley is a sedimentary basin comprised of both igneous material from the west (Sierra Nevada Mountains), and meta-sedimentary material from the east (Inyo/White Mountains), and while the Owens Valley is the result of geologic activity stemming as far back as the Paleozoic, in more recent times the valley is most evidently the product of extensional forces originating from the Basin and Range province of eastern California, and Nevada. Geologically, the Owens Valley is fairly young, and the valley is documented as being the result of Cenozoic uplift from approximately 5 million years ago (Wakabayashi, et al, …show more content…
The magnetometer will be provided by Anthony Martin of Geovision, who is also a committee member. The magnetic survey is designed to accompany and complement data acquired by the gravimeter. Ideally, once data acquisition is complete a magnetic field map can be constructed. In addition, using techniques from Pakiser, detection of magma bodies in the area of study will be possible from 2-d representation of magnetic data in conjunction with gravimetric data. Visualization of data will also be produced by the Geosoft Oasis Montaj Mapping System in the form of 2-D color contours indicating any exposed, and un-exposed basaltic
The Owens Valley is a structural trough that has been dropped down as a graben along regional scale normal faults that separate it structurally from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west, and the White Mountains to the east (Pakiser, et al. 1964). Measured at 121 km north to south and it encompasses roughly 1400 square kilometers, the Owens Valley includes such features as hot springs, the basal Bishop Tuff from the Long Valley Caldera eruption which occurred approximately 750,000 years ago (Southworth, 2012), the Poverty Hills, Alabama Hills, and the Owens Valley dry lake bed found on the valley’s southern end. Of particular interest is the Big Pine Volcanic Field which offers great opportunity for relative dating of the Poverty Hills (Fig. 2). The Owens Valley is a sedimentary basin comprised of both igneous material from the west (Sierra Nevada Mountains), and meta-sedimentary material from the east (Inyo/White Mountains), and while the Owens Valley is the result of geologic activity stemming as far back as the Paleozoic, in more recent times the valley is most evidently the product of extensional forces originating from the Basin and Range province of eastern California, and Nevada. Geologically, the Owens Valley is fairly young, and the valley is documented as being the result of Cenozoic uplift from approximately 5 million years ago (Wakabayashi, et al, …show more content…
The magnetometer will be provided by Anthony Martin of Geovision, who is also a committee member. The magnetic survey is designed to accompany and complement data acquired by the gravimeter. Ideally, once data acquisition is complete a magnetic field map can be constructed. In addition, using techniques from Pakiser, detection of magma bodies in the area of study will be possible from 2-d representation of magnetic data in conjunction with gravimetric data. Visualization of data will also be produced by the Geosoft Oasis Montaj Mapping System in the form of 2-D color contours indicating any exposed, and un-exposed basaltic