9405278 Ellis The basic premise of plate tectonics that plates more as rigid bodies with deformation occurring only at boundaries between plates is violated locally within continents, as demonstrated by the existence of broad zones of diffuse strain. This study intra-plate strain focuses on the northern Walker Lane in the Basin and Range province of the Western United States. Prior work has delineated fault-bounded blocks, identified units that will yield useful paleomagnetic results and documented the orientation and sense of slip an major faults, some of which are nearly orthogonal to each other. This work will test for vertical-axis rotations of the identified blocks and will develop a kinematic model of this example of intra-plate strain including block rotations. Results will also provide insight into the relationship between intracontinental strain nd plate-boundary interactions.
