Chris Kemp of LCI has authored a technical paper titled “LiDAR Based Fault Mapping in Southern Owens Valley, California.” Chris’s co-authors are Scott Lindvall, also of LCI, Christopher Heron of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Christopher Goetz of AECOM.
High-resolution LiDAR topographic data were evaluated for evidence of surface faulting to support a surface fault rupture hazard assessment of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s existing North Haiwee Dam and proposed North Haiwee Dam 2 in southern Owens Valley, Inyo County, CA. New mapping was performed over a 70 mi2 (180 km2) area covered by the project and publicly available 3-ft-resolution (0.9 m) LiDAR data. This new mapping revealed no surface faults that extend into the existing dam or that traverse the footprint of the proposed dam. However, detailed mapping identified a number of new faults that together define fine-scale faulting comprising the northern ends of interpreted regional-scale slip transfer systems in the southern Walker Lane.