Estimation of fault propagation distance from fold shape: Implications for earthquake hazard assessment

A numerical grid search using the trishear kinematic model can be used to extract both slip and the distance that a fault tip line has propagated during growth of a fault-propagation fold. The propagation distance defines the initial position of the tip line at the onset of slip. In the Santa Fe Springs anticline of the Los Angeles basin, we show that the tip line of the underlying Puente Hills thrust fault initiated at the same position as the 1987 magnitude 6.0 Whittler Narrows earthquake.