By:

Terri Amers

Carrie Black

Erika Mero

Ashley O’Hare

Ashley Stern

The San Andreas Fault system is located in the state of California.

A Fault is a deep crack in the earth’s crust, most of them are found between two tectonic plate boundaries.

San Andreas Fault was named after San Andreas Lake by geologist A.C. Lawson in 1895

Tectonic plates are what make up the earth’s crust where the oceans and continents rest.

The name of the tectonic plate that sits on the east side of the San Andreas Fault Line is the North American Plate and on the west side is the Pacific Plate.

The fault begins in Gulf of California, and travels north through Baja, past the Salton Sea, all the way up to San Francisco and exit’s the bay where it continues to run along the coast until it ends near Eureka, California.

The entire San Andreas fault system is more than 800 miles long and extends to depths of at least 10 miles within the Earth.

Northern Segment

Creeping Segment

Parkfield Segment

Central Segment

Southern Segment

The Northern segment of the San Andreas fault extends from Shelter Cove to south of the San Francisco Bay area.

This portion of the San Andreas fault extends from San Juan Bautista, near Monterey, to the short Parkfieldsegment deep in the Coast Ranges.

This part of he fault is at the center of the San Andreas fault. Hardly 30 kilometers long, this segment is special because it has its own set of magnitude-6 earthquakes that don't involve the neighboring segments.

This Segment is defined by the great rupture of 9 January 1857, a magnitude-8 earthquake that broke open the ground for about 350 kilometers from the hamlet of Cholamenear Parkfield to Cajon Pass near San Bernardino.

From Cajon Pass, this segment of the San Andreas fault runs about 300 kilometers to its end on the shores of the Salton Sea

The San Andreas Fault is a right lateral strike-slip fault.

What does this mean? It means that the left side of the fault is moving northward towards Alaska while the right side is sliding southward toward Mexico.

Disasters Earthquakes Landslide Flashfloods Fires Tsunamis

Result from Disasters Property Damage Property Loss Injury Death

The Great Earthquake of 1906.

San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 (also known as the “World Series” Earthquake

1994 Northridge Quake 1992Landers

Earthquake

1857- Fort Tejon Quake

1899- San Jacinto Fault Quake-6.7 magnitude

1933- Long Beach Earthquake-6.3 magnitude

1986- North Palm Springs Quake-6.1 magnitude

1992- Lander’s Quake-7.3 magnitude

1994- Northridge Quake-6.7 magnitude

1999- Hector Mine Quake-7.1 magnitude

There is no way to predict when or the exact place the earthquakes will hit.

It is unprepared for building on the fault

The central section runs northwest direction from Monterey county to Hollister.

This section exhibits a phenomenon called a seismic creep, where the fault slips slowly without causing earthquakes.

Streets crossing the fault in Hollister show major offset and several houses sitting on top of the fault are noticeably twisted or uneven.

The earthquakes are inevitable and unpredictable along the Fault Line. Scientists continue to research ways to predict when and where the earthquakes will hit. Because the earth near the San Andreas Fault is not stable, we must prepare ourselves for possible disasters.

http://jeopardylabs.com/done/enter-title37106

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Hairshirt, The Digital. The Digital Hairshirt . 24 March 2009. 5 May 2011 <http://digihairshirt.blogspot.com/search?q=San+Andreas+Fault>.

K.Lynch, David. Califorina San Andreas Fault. 2006. 05 May 2011 <http://paranoidnews.org/2010/08/the-big-one-will-hit-sooner-than-we-all-expected/>.

Wallace, Sandra S. Schulz and Robert E. The San Andreas Fault. 24 June 1997. 11 May 2011 <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/safaultgip.html>.