Just northwest of the reservoir, a road cuts through a pressure ridge, a stack of rocks shoved up by faulting.
Palmdale to Ft. Tejón
Just northwest of the reservoir, a road cuts through a pressure
ridge, a stack of rocks shoved up by faulting.
Dr. and Mrs. Stierman holding hands across the San Andreas fault,
north side of road cut (looking south) shown in previous picture (March, 2005).
The thick fault gouge might mark where the fault will break during The Big One
(pending).
View toward northwest of the San Andreas from over Palmdale.
The fault runs from just left of center bottom and bears left,
crossing Interstate 5 at Gorman, CA. The fault here makes a jog to the
right. A fort built in this 'jog' housed the officer whose report on the
1857 earthquake raised skeptical eyebrows as his descriptions seemed
unbelievable. California residents learned in 1906 that his account was
not incredible.
The northbound interstate follows the fault and makes a sharp right into the fault jog. The fault continues from center to upper left as the interstate heads toward the famous 'grapevine'.
Return to Index
Continue tour