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<br /> <br />7.1.1 Potentially Active and Active Faults <br />Colorado State Engineer regulations require consideration of poten- <br />tially active faults defined by Kirkham and Rogers (1981) for design of <br />all Class [and lazge to intermediate-size Class II dams. A map <br />published by Kirkham and Rogers (1981), showing potentially active <br />faults in Colorado, provides the basis for meeting State Engineer <br />requirements. A potentially active fault, according to Kirkham and <br />Rogers (1981), is any fault that has experienced displacement in the <br />last 28 million yeazs. This criterion is extremely conservative and <br />although acceptable for a regional evaluation of potential seismic <br />hazards, is untenable for site-specific assessments. For example, the <br />Corps of Engineers (COE) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission <br />(NRC) generally consider seismogenic (activefcapable) faults for use <br />in estimating design earthquakes to have experienced movement in the <br />last 35,000 yeazs. NRC extends the limit to 500,000 years in the case <br />of documented recurrent movement on the same fault. California <br />regulations define an active (seismogenic) fault as one that has experi- <br />enced movement in the last 10,000 yeazs. <br />A number of faults identified as potentially active by Kirkham and <br />Rogers (1981) are present in north-central Colorado. The most impor- <br />tant of these faults relative to the Trout Creek dam site include numer- <br />ous mapped and inferred faults associated with the development of the <br />Upper Arkansas Valley in the north and south grabens (Sawatch fault); <br />lazge regional faults bounding or traversing the crest of the <br />Mosquito/Pazk Range and Arkansas Hills (Mosquito, Weston and <br />London faults); the Sangre de Cristo and Villa Grove faults on the east <br />side of the San Luis Valley; faults near Spinney Mountain about 31 <br />miles (52 km) east of the Trout Creek site; and postulated basement <br />faulting associated with the Rocky Mountain Arsenal northeast of <br />Denver; and numerous other potentially active faults mapped by <br />Kirkham and Rogers (1981) in Colorado. Many of these other faults, <br />however, exhibit only circumstantial evidence for potential activity <br />based on displacement of Miocene-Pliocene units or geometric <br />relationships with faults that displace such units. The designation of <br />these faults as potentially active does not mean, in fact, that they aze <br />seismogenic, pose a hazazd to engineered works, or should be consid- <br />ered in the current seismic hazard analysis. In the following sections, <br />we discuss criteria for identification of active or seismogenic faults <br />(Figure I) for input to the PSHA for Trout Creek dam. <br />26 <br />