The Hurricane Fault is an intracrustal seismic
fault that runs along the boundary between the
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area o ...
block and the
Basin and Range geologic province of western
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. It is a 250-km-long, north-south striking, high-angle, down-to-the-west normal fault, running from about
Cedar City, Utah
Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. It is located south of Salt Lake City, and north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer G ...
southward into northwestern
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. The fault is named for the community of
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...
.
The
1992 St. George earthquake
The 1992 St. George earthquake was a earthquake that occurred on September 2, 1992 at approximately 4:26 AM Mountain Time Zone, MDT along the Washington Fault zone near the larger Hurricane Fault about southeast of St. George, Utah, St. Ge ...
(magnitude 5.8), which triggered a damaging landslide, has been attributed to the Hurricane Fault.
References
Structural geology
Geology of Utah
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