SURVEY-MODE GPS MEASUREMENTS OF CRUSTAL DEFORMATION IN AND AROUND THE SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

This EarthScope-funded research project is a collaboration between secondary educators, high school students, and undergraduate and graduate students and faculty at the California State University, San Bernardino and University of Arizona. As high school educators and their students work along-side one another, they are exposed to and contribute to an authentic research process that will lead to publishable results. The scientific goal of this project was to measure plate tectonic movement within the San Bernardino mountain area and the Inland Empire, southern California, utilizing the Global Positioning System (GPS). Teachers and students collected survey-mode GPS data from 22 sites during a 5-day campaign from June 26 - 30, 2009. The data are currently being processed at the University of Arizona using GAMIT-GLOBK. The results that will be presented include GPS data collected by the CSUSB group from 2002-2008 with NSF and SCEC funding, along with older GPS measurements for some sites from the SCEC data center. We used one-dimensional elastic modeling to infer the slip rates of the faults that make up the North America-Pacific plate boundary in proximity to the San Bernardino Mountains. The GPS velocities are well fit by a San Andreas fault slip rate anywhere between 5 and 13 mm/yr, with a best-estimate of 10 mm/yr. The information obtained may be useful for understanding and characterizing seismic hazards in this part of Southern California.