San Andreas Fault near Gorman

Paleoseismic excavations near Gorman, California. South of the area referred to as the "Big Bend" by geologists that know and study the San Andreas Fault. North the of here the fault takes a significant turn, orienting itself east / west before resuming it's course north of the transverse mountain ranges - large tectonic blocks rotating retrograde to the north bound motion of the Pacific Plate and "marching" toward the Pacific Ocean.
This segment of the San Andreas last experienced an event of magnitude 7.0+ with the Fort Tejon Quake of 1857.
Discontinuities in what are normally regular depositional layers reveal historic seismic disturbances. The intervals between those irregularities would tell you how frequently large quakes of Mag. 7.0 or greater have occurred. The data is a little unnerving.
The Fault is traced south from here by a series of lakes and marshy depressions - sag ponds. And at this junction it meets the other large fault in California, The Garlock, running northwest across the southeast boundary of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

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• Andreas
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