Impact of strong ground motion during the 1872 M7.4 Owens Valley Earthquake on alpine lakes in the Sierra Neveda

Drake M. Singleton, Daniel S. Brothers, Boe Derosier, & Rowan Azhderian

Submitted September 7, 2025, SCEC Contribution #14702, 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #TBD

Constructing paleoseismic records that span several earthquake cycles can be challenging in low-slip rate environments given long recurrence intervals and variable depositional conditions. Lacustrine systems (lakes) are continuous depositional environments and are sensitive recorders of strong ground motions capable of producing long (>10Ka) paleoseismic records. An critical first step in developing a regional lacustrine paleoseismic catalog is understanding the subaqueous sediment response to strong ground motion, specifically the minimum threshold required to produce positive evidence within the lake record. Several morphological and environmental factors including sedimentation rate, basin depth, slope gradient, and sedimentological properties (i.e., grain size) can affect subaqueous slope stability. Here we use the historical 1872 M7.4 Owens Valley earthquake as a calibration event to investigate the subaqueous response to strong ground motion along the Eastern Sierra range front, and to begin calibrating a regional ‘subaqueous seismograph’. We collected high-resolution subbottom and bathymetery data, sediment cores, and in situ geotechnical profiles in several lakes at varying distances from the 1872 epicenter, crossing several shaking intensities, in an effort to constrain the value at which identifiable positive evidence is no longer generated. In lakes proximal to the 1872 rupture large slope failures are observed below deltaic environments indicating shaking intensity above MMI VI. In those lakes more distal to 1872 rupture, the upper 30 cm of sediment contains several deposits that may be related to the 1872 earthquake and moving forward we plan on developing age control on these deposits using short lived radionuclides (Pb210/Cs137), radiocarbon, and historical marker beds (e.g., onset of mining). The data presented represents an initial step towards developing a robust regional lacustrine paleoseismic database for the Sierra Range Front and Walker Lane fault systems.

Key Words
Slope failure, Walker Lane, Paleo-shaking

Citation
Singleton, D. M., Brothers, D. S., Derosier, B., & Azhderian, R. (2025, 09). Impact of strong ground motion during the 1872 M7.4 Owens Valley Earthquake on alpine lakes in the Sierra Neveda. Poster Presentation at 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Earthquake Geology