san andreas fault plate boundary

It slices California in two from Cape Mendocino to the Mexican border. Most transform faults are underwater, but the San Andreas Fault is one of the few that is exposed on land. The San Andreas Fault is a place where two tectonic plates touch, the North American and Pacific Plates. Scott Bennett, of the US Geological Survey, told me that practically “99 percent of geologists” still consider the San Andreas to be the single most dominant plate boundary in the American West. Greek Mythology Stories: Persephone and the Origin of the Seasons, All About Bunnies: 10+ Facts About Rabbits. As it happens, Dave's house was destroyed in 1994 by the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake. There are very few places on Earth where you can see two plates in contact like this. But this is not a steady motion, it is the average motion. 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. Indeed, almost none of the SAF's fault plane is vertical. Transform fault boundaries are one of three primary plate boundary types. San Francisco is located on the San Andreas Fault, which is the boundary of the Pacific and North American plates. The mountains to the left are the San Gabriel mountains. The Fault. Strike-slip faults tend to occur along the boundaries of plates that are sliding past each other. The San Andreas Fault System, which crosses California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, is the boundary between the Pacific Plate (that includes the Pacific Ocean) and North American Plate (that includes North America). The San Andreas Fault is the sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. Photograph copyright by David Lynch. Areas to the west (left) of the fault are part of the Pacific tectonic plate. this is a convergent boundary. The red dots trace the San Andreas fault and the San Jacinto fault. Thus, at convergent boundaries, continental crust is created and oceanic crust is destroyed. You Can See a Plate Boundary! Suddenly the built-up strain breaks the rock along the fault, and the plates slip a few feet all at once. Being about 28 million years old, rocks from great distances have been juxtaposed against rocks from very different locations and origins. The Mojave desert is the flat area to the right. With California’s large population and temperate climate, there are many roads that snake along the fault. It won’t happen and it can’t happen. WRONG! This motion typically occurs … In other places, it is more subtle because the fault hasn’t moved in many years and is covered with alluvium, or overgrown with brush. The Salinian block of granite in central and northern California originated in Southern California, and some even say northern Mexico. San Diego, Los Angeles and Big Sur are on the Pacific Plate. The San Andreas Fault is a right lateral strike-slip fault as well as a transform plate boundary. The Great Glen Fault has a long movement history. The supercontinent Pangea began to break up 200 Ma and India started a northward drift towards Asia. They are uncrowded and peaceful, perfect for family outings. All it takes is a good map, a comfortable car and a desire to see the world’s most famous fault. Nor is there any thing such as “earthquake weather” or preferred times of day when earthquakes hit. Widespread hydrothermal vents and associated volcanism record prolonged Cenozoic magmatism in the South China Sea. The two plates hit an angle in California. The San Andreas Fault exemplifies a transform fault plate boundary. In San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties, many of the roads along the fault cut through great mountains of gouge, the powdery, crumbled rock that has been pulverized by the moving plates. The friction between these two plates as they slide past one another is the cause of the earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area. The San Andreas Fault is where the Pacific plate collides with the North American plate. Map of known active geologic faults in the San Francisco Bay region, California, including the Hayward Fault. U.S. Geological Survey The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty , Editor. Add to your site in minutes! When not hanging around the fault or using the large telescopes on Mauna Kea, he plays fiddle, collects rattlesnakes, gives public lectures on rainbows and writes books (Color and Light in Nature, Cambridge University Press) and essays. Map copyright by David Lynch (click to enlarge). 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