Geology and Earthquakes

[naturalist]

I thought I should start a new thread on earthquakes since I started talking about the 1857 Fort Tejon Quake under "Pine Trees"!

Here is an interesting link:
http://www.seismo-watch.com/EQSERVICES/Newsletter/EQNEWS9612.html

[naturalist]

And here are two links with information about the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake which ruptured right through the roots of the ancient pine/granary tree at the country club:
http://www.scecdc.scec.org/forttejo.html
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~meltzner/tejon.html

[naturalist]

Here is a poem written after the 1857 Earthquake:

How awful is the thought of the wonders under
ground
Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent, dark
profound

-from the Santa Barbara Gazette, January 22, 1857

[Wrightwood]

naturalist,
I just so happen to have pictures of that the ancient pine/granary tree at Twin Lakes.





pinescent posted this site in the Pine Tree section and looks like it's appropriate here:
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/trl/quakes/pool.html

[naturalist]

Of course you do!!  Wow--great website with specific information about our "Earthquake Tree" but they call it the "Pool Tree."  I guess it was the 1812 Earthquake that stopped its growth, not the 1857 one.  That's even more impressive!

[Mountain_Witch]

For keeping track of current earthquakes in California

Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada - Index Map
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/

I always go here to see if it was just me feeling things or the real deal.

[naturalist]

Thanks--I go to that site all the time after I feel a little tremor, and it usually really is an earthquake.  Like this morning at 6:16 am--did anyone else feel it?  It woke me up and I was afraid it was going to be bigger, but it was over and nothing was even swaying by the time I thought to look, so I doubted myself--then I looked it up and there was a 4.8 in Ludlow that folks felt in Victorville and San Bernardino, so I probably did feel it after all.  I think my house is right on the rupture zone from the 1857 quake, according to a map I saw, so I think I feel them really well!  I'm in for it if the "big one" hits while I live here!

[RennMan]

So, as a hopeful future resident, how concerned to I need to be, with the San Andreas running right through the center of town?

Born and raised in the Bay Area, with the San Andreas on the one side, and the Hayward Fault about 4 miles from where we currently live, I'm pretty prepared for the Big One already, but I know nothing about the geology of the southern reaches of the San Andreas fault.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

[SkierBob]

Matt - moving from S.F. I am sure you will feel much safer here in Wrightwood.  We have no double deck freeways or sky scrappers.  Although a few of us locals do run around and say 'the sky is falling', earthquakes are not much to worry about if you are prepared by having food, water, bullets and nylons.

[johnNjeri]

Matt,

Check out this nifty site:

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/latest.htm

rich,

Umm, nylons?

[RennMan]

Food, water, bullets, and nylons?

Guess I better go take an NRA gun safety course, which I was planning on doing anyway.

Nylons are always a good thing to have in trading with the indigenous peoples, I suppose.  Or a wife who got a run in one, just prior to an evening out.

Thanks for the smiles, folks.  We'll let you know when we get into town the next time.

[Mountain_Witch]

Nylons are pretty handy for a lot of things.
Thistle Feeders for the birds
Strainer/filter material
oh........I'm sorry...I'm in the wrong topic.

[naturalist]

Rich--you are a twisted guy.  I love it!  The San Andreas Fault runs right through San Francisco, too, and like Rich said, Wrightwood is much safer having fewer people, no skyscrapers, etc.  We also have several escape routes in the event of a post-earthquake fire.  There now, feel better?  Truthfully, I would rather be here than in a city in the event of any kind of emergency: earthquake, fire, debris flow, terrorist attack, nuclear accident...  :-/

[Mountain_Witch]

I look at it this way. There are a lot of houses up here over 100yrs old or dern close to it, and if there still standing after all these years then I'm not fretting a thing. Wood homes are far superior than other homes when it comes to going with the flow.
Besides that, we all might end up with beach front property many years from now.

[asmith47]

[SkierBob]

[naturalist]

Actually, we have a few more things going for us over San Francisco. A lot of the damage there occured in areas down by the bay where they had liquifaction. This is where the motion of the tectonic plate you are riding on is amplified by the soggy ground, whipsawing your house back and forth. Here we are on solid mountain and are not subject to this effect.

True, but we do have sag ponds:  Twin Lakes (or what's left of it as modified at the country club), Jackson Lake and Lost Lake are three sag ponds that formed along the San Andreas Fault --of course with the water problems we are having, if a sag pond formed on your property, it would be like striking it rich!!  ("Up through the ground come a bubblin' crude... Clear gold, water that is, California tea...")

[SkierBob]

I always plan my route to go by our sag ponds.  I noticed the other day the pond it Palmdale was about 6 ft below it's normal water line.  There is another sag pond in Valyarmo not all of us know about. It's on top of the ridge on your left as you cross bigrock creek heading towards Pearblossom.

On another note, it's not uncommon for a sag pond to pop up for a few years then go away.  The one event that sticks in my mind is in Acton South down the 14 from Palmdale.  A property owner there had a 2 acre lake pop up and visit for a few years.  I creek of moderate flow ran from the pond until it disapeared back into the ground. I believe it was around 1985.

[RennMan]

[Mountain_Witch]

Here's a link I thought was kinda interesting that has to do with that big quake that happened recently in Alaska.

http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/input/sigrun/sprunga2/northway/northway.html