A northeast trending trans-peninsular lineament across Baja California

Abstract

A northeast trending (N 75°E) lineament across Sierra San Pedro Martir in northern Baja California, is apparent on an Apollo 9 photograph and was observed in a ground reconnaissance. Named the Venado Blanco lineament, the feature appears to extend westward toward the Pacific margin where it strikes N 60°E, and eastward in an arcuate path through Sierra San Felipe. No evidence for motion or significant displacements of large-scale features along the lineament exists, and it is interpreted as an eroded zone of weakness that originated as a fault with slight left-lateral motion. Its proximity to the northwest trending Agua Blanca fault suggests a possible relationship in which both features were developed as a result of a broad clockwise rotation of the Baja California peninsula as it moved away from the mailand.