San Andreas Fault

 

Wait, whose fault is it?.... Not mine, I didn't do it! Who then? Ah... It was Mother Nature. She decided to give California a fault. So what's a fault?.... let me explain.

A fault is a planar crack in a rock along hitch slippage has taken place. Most faults are small - even microscopic - and are not important. Some faults are many miles long. (Sanandreasfsult.org)

Recently we went on a filed trip with Professor Ron. It was really interesting to see the fault in person.


 

This was one of our first stops. - Soda lake!... Not Pepsi thou! I was thirsty!

We had beautiful weather.

Our next stop was carrion plane.. (Now I know what Tia Fina was talking about!... Tia Fina likes walking through nature a lot!

When we got on top of the hill the wind was very strong!

 

 

Then we got Wallace Creek. (Funny my princial's last name is Wallace... Is this your creek Wallace? Naah! I didn't think so).

(Cutie pie!!).. The baby!

And finally we got to the fault. Ok, I'm impress mothe nature! But did you really had to give it to California... Why not Timbuktu, I'm just saying.. 

Professor Ron pointed out that the labels on the plate tectonics were incorrect. I had no idea because some times even though I'm not Chinese, I get disoriented!! (Inside joke).. The truth is that being at the fault you can jump from one plate to another! (North Plate and Pacific Plate) because the fault is in the middle. Pretty interesting stuff.

So, ladies and gentlemen this is it. San Andreas Fault.

Pacific Plate/ North Plate..?! I'm still disoriented, maybe you can figure it out.

Some scholarly info: 

The SAF is a place where two tectonic plates touch, the North Amrican and the Pacific Plate (I told you!:). The plates are rigid (or almost rigid) slabs of rock that comprise the crust and the upper mantle of the earth. The SAF is about 700 miles long when it's curves are measured. It is roughly ten miles deep, and I raches from the Salton Sea in Imperial county to Cape Mendocino in Humboldt county.

The plates are continually moving but where they touch each other, they get stuck. As the rest of the plate moves, the stuck parts deform like compressing spring so they built up stress in the rocks along the fault.  When the rock breaks or slips the suddenly plates the suddenly plates move, causing an earthquake.

 

So, there was a question I was itching to ask.. What's going to happen when we we get "The Big One"... Is it going to split open and everyone will fall over? Is the pacific plate goin to go to the sea leaving a big gap and become a brand new island?  Well, the answer to all these questions is NO...

The SAF is about 25 millions years old.  The grinding plates and earthquakes are gradually warping and reshaping California.  In a few millions years, California will look very different than it does today!.. and I don't think we'll be around that long!

Well this is it folks, hope you enjoy it!

Bea :)

Sources:

www.sanadreasfault.org
Tarkbuck, E., Lutgens, F. (2011). Earth- An introduction to physical geology. Pearson. Print.