Quaternary movement along the La Jencia Fault, central New Mexico

Abstract

From abstract: The La Jencia fault is a recently reactivated late Cenozoic basin margin structure of major proportions that forms the western margin of the Rio Grande rift, which borders the eastern sides of the northern Magdalena Mountains and the southern Bear Mountains in central New Mexico. Stratigraphic throw on the fault has not been determined, but Precambrian rocks of the Magdalena Mountains are uplifted a minimum of 800 m (meters) above the adjacent basin floor, below which lie a thick section of upper Cenozoic basin-fill deposits. Most of the implied displacement is probably Neogene in age.