This Fault is Your Fault, This Fault is My Fault

JF-30

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Man I don't even remember that compared to the big party in '89:
images

Cypress_collapsed__1524330791859__w600.jpg


There are a few spots in the Santa Cruz mountains where one can take about a 5 minute hike off the road can see the fault valley tracing a practically straight line north. If it weren't for haze one could probably see the ocean some 40-odd miles away.
First time I saw the fault valley I didn't realize what it was, just wondered how a natural valley could be so straight.
Then it dawned on me.
Couldn't find any good Google Images, one'd think they'd be plentiful, but this is the closest thing I could find:
ge_saratoga.jpg


I was kind of surprised to find out the "Ridgecrest Quake" wasn't along the San Andreas, and in any case, locally, the experts say it's our Hayward fault that's long overdue for something similar to the Loma Prieta in intensity:
122-38HaywardFault.jpg

Somehow one just doesn't think the lightning could strike twice in one's life, but there it is, and I work right on top of that sucker.

I was in the Navy at the time stationed in Japan. My mother told me she came home form work walked in the door and watch the stuff in the china cabinet shake and break. Living in Cali as long as I did I felt more that a few quakes.
 

adorshki

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I was in the Navy at the time stationed in Japan. My mother told me she came home form work walked in the door and watch the stuff in the china cabinet shake and break.

Yep.
The "directionalism" of it was incredible.
When I got home later that afternoon everything that was in the kitchen cabinets on one wall had come out and was all over the kitchen floor, but everything on the other perpendicular wall was almost unmoved.
It was impossible to walk while it was happening.
 

bobouz

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I LOVE it, and all signs in the middle of nowhere telling you where you are!! Reminds me of a roadtrip to Oregon, there I was in East B-mf--k's back 40 when coming around a curve, I passed a State Highway sign which read: "45th Parallel. Halfway between the equator and the North Pole". It took me about 2 seconds to stop, back up and pull out the camera and do a complete 360 montage. The scenery was about as naked as the background in your pic. Nakeder, even. It was the Oregon High Country. :lol:

We've got one of those "45th Parallel" signs just a bit down the coast here on Hwy 101, and I-5 has one, too.

Oregon's got you covered so you'll never get lost, Al.
 

adorshki

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We've got one of those "45th Parallel" signs just a bit down the coast here on Hwy 101, and I-5 has one, too.

Oregon's got you covered so you'll never get lost, Al.

Speaking of covered, that was what my car was after coming through the midge swarms of Klamath County in September.

couple_bugs.jpg

I know I seem like I'm on an Oregon-bashing kick here, but it's just that I'd never seen bugs so thick I had to use my windshield wipers before.
For the most part though I really dug how much unspoiled beauty there was , back then, at least.
:friendly_wink:
 
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chazmo

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:) Very cute, 'Strang. I'm not sure Woody Guthrie had that in mind, but I love it! :)

Just realized this is an old thread revival. Good one, guys!
 

adorshki

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Here's a Google Earth virtual flyover of the San Andreas fault from south of Portola Valley town center headed north.

Oh yeah. lots of overhead shots but nothing capturing that long long view straight down the valley from a hilltop near the road.
It gives a different sense of scale when you know you're already a 1000 feet or more up on a hillside.
This is close but still not looking "straight down the valley":
dscn0099.jpg

It's from a spot on the western ridge looking at the skyline of the eastern ridge side of the fault valley in the far background.
North is on the left.
Best vantage point was from one of the switchbacks on State Route 9 (along Saratoga Creek Canyon in the earlier diagram) where it actually crosses the fault on its way up to Skyline Blvd.
marking the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west flank of "the zone".
That's around 20 miles south of Portola Valley and from Skyline Blvd the view's largely obscured by trees.
 
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Nuuska

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Interesting reading in Wikipedia - the Pacific Plate and American Plate rub each other 56mm per year - thus San Fransisco and LA will meet in about 15 million years.
 

adorshki

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Interesting reading in Wikipedia - the Pacific Plate and American Plate rub each other 56mm per year - thus San Fransisco and LA will meet in about 15 million years.

It is kind of a mind-blower to realize that within 5 minutes you can be on one plate and then the other, that Santa Cruz is on the Pacific Plate and Silicon Valley's on the North American, and we cross it on highways that yield no clue, for the most part.
You'd think there's be some kind of sign.
Hmmmm....maybe this'd be a good local crusade for when I retire.
Maybe stand on the highway with a cardboard sign:
"Will Cross San Andreas Fault For Food"


Is it just me or did they get Leonard Nimoy to pose for that cover?
51M1M5RubdL._SY355_.jpg
 
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Nuuska

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hah !!!

When we do our daily stroll with Jymy The Dog - the route goes along community border - every now and then Jymy goes over the tiny ditch so I can tell him : "Come back to hometown!"
 

bobouz

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Is it just me or did they get Leonard Nimoy to pose for that cover?
51M1M5RubdL._SY355_.jpg

Had that album for many years, until I decided to sell my entire collection of vinyl.

Recorded my favorites to tape off the Hartford album - Still my favorite version of Gentle On My Mind.
 
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