Late Pleistocene structural evolution of the Camarillo fold belt; implications for lateral fault growth and seismic hazard in Southern California

The Camarillo fold belt in the Western Transverse Ranges poses a significant seismic hazard to nearly one million people living in Southern California, yet few published geologic or geochronological data from this fold belt exist. The Camarillo fold belt is composed of several south-verging, west-plunging anticlines that characterize the western extent of the Simi fault zone, which extends for 40 km through urbanized Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Surface and subsurface geologic data are utilized to accurately construct five cross sections within discrete structural domains to assess the local style of deformation, and to quantify the magnitudes of fault slip, fault- and fold-related uplift, and percent shortening. Eight new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from three paleoseismic trenches and six numerical dates from a previous study were utilized to quantify the timing and rates of deformation on discrete faults and folds. The onset of deformation in the Camarillo fold belt is everywhere younger than ca. 125 ka and locally as young as ca. 25 ka. Quaternary deformation occurs on reactivated steeply dipping (70°) Miocene faults, with shortening being largely accommodated in a narrow zone (