[pct-l] Re:The Big One

[matt at mattmaxon.com (Matt Maxon)]

Hey Greg

Steer clear of the Heath Canyon Landslide about 0.20 mile South of Acorn Cyn
Trail while riding the dirt wave of the Big One! =;-O

http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/deptweb/SkinnyCalSites/TrnsverseRng/SanGabriels/SGOVpictxt/Wrightmdflw.html

Matt Maxon (Trail90)
----- Original Message ----- > ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 17:53:55 EDT
> From: Bighummel@aol.com
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Drought in Wrightwood
> To: rogers@isi.edu, pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> Message-ID: <8.50f1aa25.2e149073@aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> In a message dated 6/30/2004 1:43:33 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
rogers@isi.edu
> writes:
>     FYI, the drought in Wrightwood, CA, has made it necessary to
> truck water in to supply the town.  The local water company will drill
> a new well this summer in hopes of increasing available supplies
>
> Those Wrightwoodians are smart!  Drilling a new well where they are
situated
> and removing water will increase the friction on the San Andreas fault, on
> which the town sits.  This just might save them from or at the very least
> postpone the effects of the "Big One" earthquake hitting their quaint,
semi-mountain
> resort.
>
> For any of you that might not be familiar with the "Big One" prediction, a
> UCLA grad student found a stream on the backside of the San Gabriels that
was
> offset and pooled into a lagoon every time the San Andreas fault moved
> significantly.  He traced significant movements back thousands of years by
carbon
> dating the sediments in the lagoon area.  He showed that this portion of
the fault
> moved significantly every 150 years or so, plus or minus about 40 years.
> Thus, the last significant movement on that portion of the fault moved
back in
> 1842 (or thereabouts, I don't recall the specific year) and the fault
ripped from
> just south of Bakersfield all of the way to Redlands in a massive
earthquake
> postulated at upper 7's or low 8's magnitude.  This section of the San
Andreas
> fault has not been shown to have moved at all in the time since.  Thus, in
> 2004 we are in the window of historical significant movements.
>
> The state office of mines and geology put out an interesting paper a few
> years ago, titled something to the tune of, "Consequences on the Sth
California
> Infrastructure of a Magnitude 8 Earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in the
> Palmdale Area".   It is rather scary.
>
>  I just hope that I happen to be on the PCT when it rips again!  It will
be a
> grand site and an incredible event to witness out of doors where you are
> certain to be knocked off of your feet but unlikely to have much else
happen to
> you unless you are unlucky enough to be under where a landslide is loosed
or a
> boulder or a tree falls on you, or . . .
>
> Best regards,
>
> Greg "Strider" Hummel
>
>
> ------------------------------