Late Quaternary slip rates for the southern Elsinore fault in the Coyote Mountains, southern California from analysis of alluvial fan landforms and clast provenance, soils, and U-series ages of pedogenic carbonate

Abstract Offset alluvial fans along the Elsinore fault in the south-central Coyote Mountains were studied to resolve an average late Quaternary slip rate for this major western strand of the San Andreas fault system in southern California. Alluvial fans and their offsets were mapped using high-resolution DEMs combined with field observations of fan-surface morphology and the character of the soils developed in each fan remnant. Clast assemblage data was used to determine the source of each alluvial fan upstream of the fault, and U-series dating of pedogenic carbonate was used to estimate minimum ages of the alluvial fan surfaces. Forty U-Th dates on pedogenic carbonate confirm the utility o…