Project Description The Camarillo Fold Belt (CFB) was the primary focus area for my dissertation research. The CFB in the western Transverse Ranges is composed of numerous active south-verging folds and reverse faults that pose an unknown hazard to nearly one million people living in the cities of Ventura, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, and Oxnard as well as north and east in the San Fernando, Simi, and Santa Clara River Valleys. Although numerous consulting reports had been completed on some of the known faults, the CFB is the last remaining fold belt between the Los Angeles fold belt and the Santa Barbara fold belt that has not been studied as a unit for the purpose of evaluating potential seismic hazard.

Figure showing the location of the Camarillo fold belt located with the Southern California Earthquake (SCEC) “Hot Zone”.  Note that shortening across the Ventura basin and the study area based on GPS velocities suggest 7-10 mm/yr of shortening (Donnellan et al., 1993)

Fault Slip Rates                 Punctuated lateral fault growth                  GIS-based topographic analyses                       The Saugus Formation

This research has four main facets.

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