Monday, January 12, 2015

Not My Fault!

No, it is the San Andreas Fault and it passes right through Desert Hot Springs! In fact it is only a few dozen feet from our site!

The San Andreas Fault is the sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. It slices California in two from Cape Mendocino to the Mexican border. San Diego, Los Angeles and Big Sur are on the Pacific Plate. San Francisco, Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada are on the North American Plate. And despite San Francisco’s legendary 1906 earthquake, the San Andreas Fault does not go through the city. But communities like Desert Hot Springs, San Bernardino, Wrightwood, Palmdale, Gorman, Frazier Park, Daly City. Point Reyes Station and Bodega Bay lie squarely on the fault and are sitting ducks. 
http://geology.com/articles/san-andreas-fault.shtml

The two plates move past each other at the average rate of a couple of inches per year, at times getting hung up and sticking together until enough pressure builds up to suddenly release them and they move a foot or two all at once, creating an earthquake.

There is a gravel field beside the park which covers the actual fault which lies between us and the RV park next door on Corkill Rd. where our friends George and Suzi stayed. One thing to note is that the actual underground natural Hot Springs occur only on the North American Plate side of the fault, the side we are on. Sorry Rick and Paulette, the fault crosses Dillon Road between our parks, placing you on the wrong side of the fault! ;)

Here you can see how close it runs past our Desert Oasis RV Park:


7 comments:

  1. Wow! Good thing your home has built in shock absorbers!

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  2. Replies
    1. I will be sipping a beer with you at your RV park when that happens. ;)

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  3. Interesting bit of information. We knew that Caliente' Springs, our home for February and March, was in the trouble zone too.

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  4. Did not realized you guys were across the road from us, I walked right by there a few times., we love the area.

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  5. We could use a hot spring right about now! Brrr! Have fun!

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  6. And some people think that Mexico is dangerous. Apparently you're not safe anywhere!

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