Ron's Log

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June 25, 2006

Yesterday Pat H. led his GOPS tour of the branches of the San Andreas fault that pass under Desert Hot Springs. It was a surprisingly large turn out with about 20 people. We drove around to get the highlights (the same ones I got on the dry run on Thursday): the Banning fault, the Mission Creek fault, the DHS Spa (where we got a tour from the President of the DHS Chamber of Commerce, Lane Sarasohn who runs the place), the Mission Creek cold water aquifer recharging ponds out on Worsely Road, and finally the line where the Banning fault passes through White Water Canyon at Bonnie Bell. However, I'm sure the highlight was the air-conditioned lunch at Darrel's.

Pat brought along a lot of maps of the faults which made it quite clear I've had the Mission Creek fault slightly misplaced. It is NOT two blocks away from my house, but more like 100-150 feet. Even so, I've got a very reasonable earthquake insurance price. On average, the southern part of the San Andreas fault (where I live) breaks only about every 250 years. It's been more than 350 years since the last break.

The chances of me surviving a quake on the fault are not good at all if I'm at home (or anywhere nearby). The San Andreas fault in southern California never breaks with less than a force of 8.0. A quake of that size would shake for 60 to 90 seconds with an energy release 32,768 times as great as the amusing 5.0s that I've felt already. What this means is that after my cinder block walls fall on me, they will continue to bounce for at least another minute, guaranteeing that my bones are smashed to powder. After that with no power, water, medical care or access to the outside world my blogging will suffer a severe interruption.

But I think we all were in agreement yesterday that it sure beats living in Florida!

Here is a stitch I made of several Google satellite images that shows the faults:

Or, you can see the full size image here.

And here's an annotated version labeling the faults and showing the locations of our hot and cold water aquifers:

Full size here.

Filed under Coachella Valley | permalink | June 25, 2006 at 10:06 AM

Comments

I betcha I can get to the Pacific Plate before you!

Posted by: Ron's Log at Jun 25, 2006 5:35:17 PM

Nice job. I can see the Mission Creek Fault from my house.
I am glad I live on the North American Plate. Maybe we will
all have beach front property.

Posted by: Eric at Jun 25, 2006 1:13:58 PM

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