Ridgecrest, CA | Surface Ruptures

[@Tweakerbell528PhxAZ]

I love the drone footage and your adventures are fun. Pleas keep them coming !! +++++

[@geologicallyspeaking]

Thanks for the encouragement Scott! Yes, I plan to produce more interesting content and drone footage!

[@califdad4]

My Aunt lived in the Ridgecrest/ China lake area in 1950-1955 and was there when the big ( I think) 1953 earth quake happened, it wasn't as bad there as Tehachapi which was pretty much flattened. She said she had spent the night at her business right in town but backed up to the desert, and when it hit her German shepherd was with her he could barely walk across the floor it was moving so much and she got across to the back door and opened it and she said she could see the ground moving up and down.

[@priscillaross-fox9407]

I love reading reports like yours although I'm sorry your aunt had to go through this.

[@califdad4]

@@priscillaross-fox9407 it was a life experience

[@leechurchill1965]

That's a hell of a new fissure. The Garlock is formidable. Great content.

[@dennisyardn1ten238]

Todd, I recently traveled from San Diego to the Obsidian Buttes location on the southeast end of the Salton Sea and southern end of the San Andreas. There are four or five geothermal plants there which might me of interest to you for a video, not to mention the obsidian rocks and mud pots. I did not look too hard for the mud pots but they are supposed to be in the vicinity. This is the site of many earthquake swarms.

[@geologicallyspeaking]

Thanks for the tip! I’ve been there several times when I camped in Borrego Springs in the past, but never made a formal video (lots of pics though). I’ll definitely keep it in mind if I make it out there again!

[@JCSaves714]

Wow! You can totally tell how much the floor change because k! Totally remember those 2 different days! Especially the second one which was @ around 6 or 7pm and I’ve NEVER seen my house move so crazy! I even saw my neighbors house moving so s I’lll weird! I grew up in SoCal and never have I experienced an earthquake that cool!!

[@Tweakerbell528PhxAZ]

Im a survivor of the Oct. 17 89 Loma Prieta quake and lived in San Francisco. The cracks were also everywhere in the city, Where i lived, 7th st. split open about 10 inches from Natoma to Mission st. about 3 ft depth But im still fascinated in quakes and geology.

[@geologicallyspeaking]

Thanks for the comment and for watching Scott. I remember that day well. I was still in SoCal and I was watching the Dodgers play in the World Series when our TV went black. The aftermath up there looked devastating from the news reports; couldn't imagine seeing in-person. No doubt, left a big impression on you.

[@JenniferLupine]

Great video! Dramatic example of results of the earthquake! Amazing! 👍👍🌞

[@geologicallyspeaking]

Thanks! It was an amazing experience.

[@davidkaplan2745]

Interesting. Both right-lateral and left-lateral faulting.

[@johnlord8337]

Ridgecrest fault line lies on what I call the Grapevine (basaltic) Triangle intrusion. A massive geological triangle pushing westward from the North American craton, cutting the San Andreas in two. This geological triangle stops the L.A. - Baja peninsula formation from travelling north, thusly giving those many micro-tremor swarms south of the triangle in L.A. It is this geological triangle that is holding back the majority of all West Coast northward movement, and diminishing the crawling of the San Andreas/San Francisco formation from pulling away from the northward edge of the triangle. As well as the Grapevine Triangle, there is the Siskyou-Klamath mountain range that .. in its own fashion ... is stopping the easy northward movement of the San Andreas/San Francisco formation from pushing northward. All this provides interesting California/Baja geology.

[@geologicallyspeaking]

John Lord This is very interesting John; I want to learn more. Could this triangle be helping the Walker Lane hypothesis?

[@johnlord8337]

@@geologicallyspeaking I will need to learn-up the Walker Lane hypothesis. When I looked at the google maps (all previous to Ridgecrest and the L.A. EQ swarms, it just appeared to me (geology eyes), and all of the resultant (above) statements. Have mentioned these features to Nick Zentner (and 4-5 years of exotic terrane features of Canada, WA, OR, and N CA). www.google.com/maps/place/Los+Angeles,+CA/@34.6962263,-118.9199791,165131m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2c75ddc27da13:0xe22fdf6f254608f4!8m2!3d34.0522342!4d-118.2436849 When you look at the contrast of dark and light features, and the ridges and ranges, a triangle appears. Pin on the L.A. swarms that were to the NE of L.A. BELOW this triangle, and the Ridgecrest events that were on the NE fault line ABOVE this triangle, ... and more geology becomes apparent. Implications about future EQ swarms, fault lines, major EQs, will be appearing on the edges of this triangle - not inside of it. Thusly, this triangle (not of eastward moving Pacific Plate oceanic basin basalt bedrock subduction and uplift, but from prior NA craton magma chamber basalt bedrock extrusion ....). Put this together with your Long Valley cauldera Convict Lake vid ... that I immediately emailed Nick about, and his comments of the Central WA Cle Elum orogeny being the same as the E OR Bald (mountain) orogeny (being some 144 MYA), and the Cle Elum came in AFTER Mt Stuart (85-65 MYA) landed (with 100 MYA age). These ages, along with your (Baja-) Long Valley cauldera ... where Nick has taken his geology students for walkabouts, have the same 100+ MYA ages). All of these are exotics that I have pestered Nick into understanding and geo-historically making a timeline. In that email, I make the ascertion that these orogenies were (near-)FULLY DEVELOPED upthrusts, mountains, peaks, ridges, and ranges, ... down in Central America West Coastline, ... fragmented via solar and lunar tidal force movements, and these whole sections then caterpillared north all the way to Canada, WA, OR, N CA. Just think of watching the entire Cascades moving into place in situ ... awesome geology. Just like the current San Andreas/SanFrancisco fragment wholly moving in situ north.

[@johnlord8337]

So the original PNW was the NA craton and sea. Everybody believes that the Kula and Farallon oceanic basalt plates were scraped of their sediments, creating the sediments of E WA and E OR. In truth, a very small minority of geology. Baja-BC exotics came up BEFORE Mt Stuart into EASTERN WA (pre-85 MYA), then further NORTHERN WA exotics before Mt Stuart appeared (85-65 MYA). Then SOUTHERN WA exotics like these Cle Elums (100+ MYA age) appearing in those post 65 MYA period. Then WESTERN WA exotics filling the west side of Mt Stuart (65-50 MYA). Then Baja-BC Siletzia appears 50 MYA. And final and further exotics fill in post-50 MYA. And if there wasn't/isn't the Siskiyou-Klamath coastal mountain range (that appears like the southern end of the Cascades with subduction (and I found 5 MAJOR magma chambers thereunder - making Yellowstone look like a pimple on a flea's azz ...) ... the San Andreas/San Francisco formations would keep sliding north as the newest of the PNW geology, ... and later the L.A.-Baja peninsula would slide up and become the new coastal features. Add to that (my discoveries of) the hidden orogenies of China/Asia-BC exotic terrane(s) intruding into those E WA areas with those fossilized gingko trees of George Bretz at Vantage, WA (!).

[@geologicallyspeaking]

John Lord This is fascinating John. I’m going to study this further for sure.

[@johnlord8337]

All of these granitic batholiths etc of the Grand Ronde, Steens Mountains, and portions of the Siskiyou-Klamaths, and such correleated features found in the Sierras, all speak of those equatorial Mexican and Central America magma chambers, volcanoes, mountains, ridge, ranges, and peaks, being fragmented and moving north. Hotspots, magma chambers locked with mountains moving north (!) vs Hawaiian islands lithosphere moving over am oceanic basin hotspot creating the many island chain there. Move an entire active magma chamber, or dead granitic, grano-diorite, andesite batholith, basalt formation northward (!). Talk about exotic terraines !!! And these Grand Ronde granite batholiths (creating the clockwise movement of the PNW), Cle Elum blueschist/granite, were upthrust from 7-13 to 20-30 miles deep up to their present 1 mile above sea level elevations. As Nick states, WA and OR were "flatlands" all before the times of the Cascades formation (

[@alanmarston8612]

thank you for showing the real damage.

[@rosellaguajardo7301]

Yep, no hurrocanes tho