Comment on “Known and suggested Quaternary faulting in the midcontinent United States” by Russell L. Wheeler and Anthony Crone

Studying previously published and other publicly available geologic evidence of Quaternary faulting in the midcontinent United States, Wheeler and Crone [Eng. Geol. 62 (2001) 51] judged that the 30-km northwest extension of the Meers Fault in southwestern Oklahoma suggested by Cetin [Cetin, H., 1992. The northwest extension of the Meers fault in southwestern Oklahoma. Proc. 28th Symp. Eng. Geology and Geotechnical Eng., University of Idaho, Boise, ID, pp. 43–58.] is not of Quaternary age, and claimed that Holocene surface rupture has been limited to the previously reported 26–37-km section of the fault to the southeast. Surface rupture length is one of the most commonly used parameters to infer magnitudes of paleoearthquakes and, thus, potential future earthquakes, in seismic hazard studies. As a result, underestimating fault dimensions may lead to serious errors in earthquake hazard evaluation. ce for the northwestward extension include displaced terrace deposits of Pleistocene age, displaced, buried and/or overthickened soil horizons, fault-related colluvium deposits (colluvial wedges) found near and only on the downthrown side of the fault, active oil seepage near the fault, deflection of stream alignments and the land use pattern along the fault. The assessment of the northwestward extension of the Meers Fault by Wheeler and Crone, thus, appears to be mistaken.