Thrust Faults in the Las Vegas Area

Sevier - Laramide Project

Thrust faults in southern Nevada formed because of tectonic collisions during the Sevier (Cretaceous, about 160-60 million years) orogeny, which shoved continental shelf and margin sedimentary rock layers eastward by at least 50 km.  

Wheeler Pass Thrust

See in YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFzsFXEs6aA

This thrust places the early Proterozoic (1.6 to 2.5 billion years) Stirling Quartzite over the much younger Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata (between 360 and 300 million years). 

A close-up view of the thrust in Wheeler Pass.

Looking northeast from Wheeler Pass along the fault.  The Stirling Quartzite is the lighter colored rocks above the thrust.

Gass Peak Thrust

To the east of Wheeler Pass is Gass Peak and its namesake thrust, which are interpreted as correlative.

The current Google aerial photos of the Gass Peak area show unfortunate false colors -- gray rocks are shown as purple.  The Gass Peak thrust places Cambrian and Proterozoic strata over Pennsylvanian and Permian strata.

The Gass Peak thrust is located directly north of Las Vegas.  At the end of the video, the Keystone thrust in Red Rocks State Park is in the pinkish cliffs in the upper right.

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