Strain‐rate profile across the Elsinore, San Jacinto, and San Andreas Faults near Palm Springs, California, 1973‐81

A profile of the strain accumulation rate along a line trending N50°E across the subparallel Elsinore, San Jacinto, and San Andreas faults near Palm Springs, California, has been constructed from trilateration surveys in the 1973‐81 interval. The strain accumulation is principally right‐lateral shear across a vertical plane parallel to fault strike (N40°W). The strain rate profile for that component exhibits two clearly resolved maxima, one centered on the San Jacinto fault (γ_max = 0.35 ± 0.02 µrad/a) and the other on the San Andreas fault (γ_max = 0.40 ± 0.02 µrad/a); no maximum is associated with the Elsinore fault. This result clearly implies that slip at depth on both the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults is loading the shallower sections of these faults, and that eventually rupture can be expected on both.