The Southern Tip of the San Andreas Fault in California's Salton Trough

Journey below sea level to California's Salton Trough and the start of the 1200 km (750 mi) San Andreas Fault, the transform plate boundary between the Pacific and North American plates, with geology professor Shawn Willsey. GPS location: 33.44504, -115.82590
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[@shawnwillsey]

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[@alexshatner3907]

Thanks

[@rosiealaniz3205]

I recently subscribed to your channel and contributed a little amount. I’m a Hispanic female retired that i have just finished my first geology college course AND I’m totally hooked. I’m taking Physical Geology in the fall. THANK YOU SO MUCH ! LOVE YOUR DELIVERY.. I can feel your love and commitment to Geology. With tons of gratitude!!

[@MJIZZEL]

Glad to hear you pursuing your interest. Good luck and God bless.

[@LADYSILVERWOLF028]

Congrats! I took a Geology course in early high school. I loved it so much I wanted to be a Volcanologist, but there was no where near me to study or that offered it as a major at the time. Good luck with your classes.

[@shawnwillsey]

Awesome! I love everything about your post. Welcome aboard. I have a GEOL 101 series coming out soon. Enjoy the existing videos.

[@richardortiz8704]

Is it going to go into the ocean 🪸🌊

[@Vovo-zx4ql]

I’m glad you put things simply. Many make things too complicated but you explain it so it’s easy to understand. Thank you! I’m from Australia by the way. 😊

[@elodieschindelheim611]

Way back in the 50’s and 60’s my father would take us camping in those areas. Especially the Anzo Borrego camping areas. Loved the hot springs and the the crystal clear warm nights where it seemed the stars were just a finger touch away. And the washes where we could find fossils. That was fun! Our Disneyland.

[@jillcrowe2626]

My grandmother used to live in this area in a community in Niland. Her close friends were rock hounds and they loved the area.

[@Bigfoot-px9gj]

Did you know that outside the town of San Andreas, California, there is a big sign that says *_"It's Not Our Fault!"_*

[@jimvinson6046]

Too Funny 😁!!!

[@Danika_Nadzan]

Thanks, Professor...I've always wondered where the San Andreas Fault begins. I'm fascinated by how far the ground can move laterally when the plate slip occurs. The Earth's awesome power in plain sight!

[@briang70]

Shawn, please do segments about the whole rest of the San Andreas Fault. I grew up in Santa Clarita where the fault passes nearby and have been fascinated by it since I was a kid. Thanks!

[@susiesue3141]

So cool! My husband lived in Southern California. First his dad was stationed there in the Navy and then my husband moved back there again when he got away from home after he served in the Navy and Army. Thank you Sir for sharing your information! 😊

[@JenKnee423]

Having grown up in Southern California, I really appreciate this video. The San Andreas has always interested me. It’s crazy to see the Salton Sea with that much water in it. I read an article out of SDSU that the drying of the Salton Sea has eased the strain on that part of the fault, thus postponing “the big one” that could devastate Southern California.

[@TheDevice9]

I don't really know anything about the Salton Sea and it sound pretty interesting. You should do an entire video on it. I always enjoy your analysis. Easy to grasp.

[@Schneewalzer]

Greetings from Austria 🇦🇹 and thank you for your interesting videos 👍🏼

[@sandrine.t]

What a beautiful location... Thank you Shawn for another great geology lesson! I love your diagrams, and I mean it! They really help me understand the landscapes you show in your videos 🤗

[@jenniferlevine5406]

Beautiful spot. I so much appreciate you interpreting the rocks for us. Really appreciate your efforts and this great video!

[@HH.......]

Thank you Shawn 😊 great lesson 👍 😊

[@johnlord8337]

Intersting in this whole area, with previous Colorado River infilling, this was a huge inland sea, and flowed out into the Gulf of California, so much water that (said) Spanish (etc.) ships were able to sail into the inland California, and shipwrecks/abandoned ships etc.

[@TheDanEdwards]

There has not been navigable water in the Trough in a long, long time. Spanish explorers could have paddled themselves up the Colorado River to the east, though.

[@johnlord8337]

@@TheDanEdwards The geology and historicl accounts deny your uneducated statement as a troll. - of which you trolls constantly troll my comments - so fluff off!

[@MaryYoungblood-xy8vg]

Don't forget about the relationship of the Gulf of California and it's Gulf of California Rift Zone on the geology of the Salton trough part of the Imperial Valley.

[@JenKnee423]

Also, be on the lookout for rattlesnakes in that area! Hope you got a chance to take the aerial tram up Mt. Jacinto out of Palm Springs while you’re in the area. And if you get a chance, you must go to Julian (it’s south of where you are now) for the best apple pie you’ll ever have! 😊

[@virgo714]

My geology professor says that we are spoiled when it comes to geology here in California 🤗

[@virgo714]

@@garyb6219 I took volcanology and our professor took us to see the Long Valley Caldera and the surrounding areas such as Mono Lake, Red Hill, The Hot Creek Geological Site in Mammoth and Owens River gorge… it was a treat!

[@analise17]

If you ever get the chance, visit Southeastern Utah. The National and State Parks are amazing!

[@CatJuarez]

I completely agree with your Professor 💯

[@pattilemonhouse7911]

I live just west of San Jacinto. I love it here. Thanks for the lesson on my neighborhood.

[@tomcook5813]

I participated in a well water study in Cajon Pass in the late 80’s, we took depth readings of the water level from the top. What was amazing is over 20’ of change overbite. These were unused wells. We never did achieve detection of quake precursors, but was a fun project.

[@seekingthetruth304]

@tomcook5823 What do you mean by "overbite"?

[@tomcook5813]

@@seekingthetruth304 I meant overnight 🙂

[@seekingthetruth304]

@tomcook5813 got it lol. In case you didn't know, you can edit your post by clicking the three little dots in the upper right hand corner of your post. Thanks for the clarification.

[@kevindorland738]

Thank you Professor

[@macking104]

When you were at Salt Creek, did you find a pair of boots? My brother lost some stuck in the mud a few years ago!

[@juju-xx5xn]

Great video! What do you make of all the recent earthquakes in that region lately? From the area where you are here, to just below the border? I think there's been like 200 low level quakes in that area very recently.

[@macking104]

For info on the Imperial fault where last week’s swarm occurred, there two good papers on the Imperial fault wikipedia page.

[@raenbow66]

Neat, Shawn. I've been to that area birding, now must visit for geology!

[@lisameyer1373]

Thank you it's so interesting. I love geology.

[@mhick3333]

Love the transition from the zipper style in the sea of cortez with some igneous activity where it pulls open to the SAF system where the pacific plate is pulling off the outboard part of the north american plate

[@JorgeSanchez-uk4cb]

Thank you🙏 professor Willsey Your the best 🤛😃

[@stephanieparker1250]

This is interesting, thanks Shawn! 🎉🎉

[@pierreproudhon9008]

If you're lucky you'll notice the rocks will have alluvial congs alternating with finer grained stuff. The same subsidence that created the valleys does that. Alluvial fans sometimes get swarmed by lake water due to subsidence, fans prograde, subside again underwater, and go back and forth. Sedimentary rocks next to Tertiary lakes in Socal are like that. Come by UC Riverside if you ain't rushing!

[@mightymouseofnyc]

Timely with the earthquake swarms occurring in Southern Cali lately.

[@Joe-Skier]

Thanks for another great video Shawn. I grew up in the San Bernardino mountains near Mt San Gorgonio.

[@mhick3333]

Great presentation and great comments

[@StevenHess]

The San Andreas Fault is 12 miles to the west of me. So this in much more in my mind than the Basin and Range.

[@rebeccaanderson5037]

love this love finding our channel moving Nevada that area ready to explore

[@user-bw6ll2on8b]

Great, thanks so much for this kind of info

[@NonnoNao]

A lot of GTA V vibes. Thank you for the lession professor, have fun and stay safe in Iceland

[@johnlord8337]

Shawn - need to do a vid on the basalt triangle grapevine that is holding the entire L.A. - Baja plate from moving north. When that cracks, that entire landmass will have a free ticket to the Pacifric Northwest. The same for the Oregon-California boundary Siskyou-Klamath mountain range, with 5 supermagma chambers found underneath the basalt overburden. When/if that cracks open, then the whole coastal region of S Oregon, California, and Baja will all have British Columbian and Washington addresses. (I am the one who found these 5 magma chambers under the greater Grant's Pass to Weed region. The 2 most-southern chambers appear to be joining up and moving down between Weed and Mt Shasta, and possible movement toward Long Valley cauldera. This region is larger than the whole much-emphasized Yellowstone super magma chambers.)

[@debjaniduttaray2204]

Thank thank you

[@brianpeters2695]

I live in the Palm Springs area. Love your videos.

[@travisguide4516]

Awesome video i always wanted to walk around there

[@TheMrAshley2010]

No one commenting on Shawn's ability to "be" in SoCal while simultaneously studying/teaching/touring Iceland? ;)

[@shawnwillsey]

😏

[@raywhitehead730]

In the 1980's. I flew a helicopter, at about 500 feet, along the entire length of the San Andreas fault. It was interesting that for most of the flight, you could clearly see it. It took me two days, as a survey from the air.

[@stevemackelprang8472]

Thanks for this!

[@larrywynn9092]

The mountains to the north are the San Bernardinos on North America. The big one on the other side of the sea in the north is Martinez Mountain of the Santa Rosa chain which obscurs San Jacinto, obviously on the pacific plate. You can see how the fault runs through them.Great videos. Come back and visit. And Palm Springs would be under sea level if not that it lies on a mega alluvial fan. But it all goes downhill from there.

[@user-je2ny1mq1o]

☺️

[@jefferyindorf699]

Love your pun.

[@davidsavage6227]

Could you describe the volcano in Lancaster, CA and how it split in two? The other half is now Pinnacles, CA, but it seems like a very long distance for both to be from the same volcano, both being found along different places along the San Andreas Fault.

[@waynep343]

I have always wondered if the San Andreas shifting Northwest has caused the Sierra Nevada to curve around and head back North which would explain the features of the Southern San Joaquin Valley

[@ericfielding2540]

Nice visit to the southern end of the San Andreas Fault. I hope you cover what happens to the plate boundary further south in another video.

[@DrunkenMickk]

I thought the end of the fault itself was covered by the waters of the Salton Sea -- is that where the East Pacific Rise spreading center begins and stretches all the way down to the Southern Hemisphere? So it's a meeting point of a transform fault and a divergent spreading fault?

[@edwardTisk-ix8nj]

Good content. Thx.!

[@lancehermann3692]

I’ve always been curious as to the mechanics and the origins of those geothermal fields of the southern Salton Trough.

[@dgrah]

Thanks for the video, Shawn. It would be interesting to hear something about how a transform fault can end at this point. What happens to the relative motion?

[@oscarmedina1303]

This is the location where the fault transitions to the East Pacific Rise spreading center. The transition has created at least two active volcanoes and exotic minerals, like Lithium.

[@greggordon3688]

Thanks!

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you

[@ewade1342]

great vid

[@GeistView]

Should make a trip up to Shore Acres Oregon state park to see some awesome anticlines synclines formations . Along highway 42 between the Coos Bay and Roseburg at 43.035253, -124.039636 on the north side of the road is some exposed pillow lava from Siletzia.

[@SkepticalRaptor]

Maybe one day I’ll take a tour of the San Andreas fault from your point all the way up to the Farrallon Islands. That might be fun. I really enjoyed your description of what was going on at the southern tip of the fault.

[@d2sfavs]

love this kind of stuff.did you mention how deep these plates are?

[@rickforespring4834]

i live in california and everytime i watch a video about san andreas i get the shivers and think....is this when it happens? irony makes you think strange things i guess. lol. good video and i learned something today too...i didn't know the san andreas fault starts at the salton sea.

[@PAPOOSELAKESURFER]

The Landers earthquake connects the Southern San Andreas to Owen's Valley and the East California Rift Zone. It is stair step extending from ocean spreading faults in Gulf of California.

[@Kalithrasis]

Another interesting place to do a geology video in California that involves the San Andreas is Pinnacles National Park, which is the remains of an ancient volcano that was split in half and carried north from where it originated (the modern Neenach formation) during the Miocene.

[@susancuenin2137]

I lived in the Imperial Valley for several years. We had swarms of earthquakes when the weather heated up and again when it cooled off. I’ve always wondered if there is a connection between temperature shifts and earthquake activity.

[@TheDanEdwards]

The overlooks in San Diego and southern Riverside counties, that look over the Salton Trough, are spectacular, one of my favorite places to visit. The sedimentary material in the Trough confuses me a bit, though, as from the Pliocene and through the Pleistocene there would have been times when sea levels were much higher than today, and the Colorado River down near the border is currently on a few meters above sea level. As such, the Trough could have been filled with a salt water inlet at times, no?

[@user-nj9rf6zm2x]

Love it where can you get there? I live in El Cajon, ca and I love geology always wondered where the fault started.

[@NICURN]

I can't wait; soon we'll have Yuma Beach, Blythe Beach, Needles Beach. Gettin' the swim suits ready now :) All kidding aside Professor, what a great channel, I learned more in 8 minutes than I could've imagined. Blessings!!!

[@alixmaiden-baillie5517]

I think you were already in Iceland, or in transit, when there was a bunch of quakes around Brawley CA last weekend. In a future video, can you please talk about the Brawley/Imperial area, and that east-west fault that seems to connect the south end of the San Andreas with another N-S fault that runs down into BC Mex?

[@sifarren]

That is really interesting professor Wilsey, I have a question which might be a bit lame, but I'm not a geologist, sadly I chose another path. How do we define the start of a fault? Is it differing rock types in a close proximity? Sorry if it's been explained in previous videos , I am working through them. Cheers from North Yorkshire, UK

[@janetm2969]

I wouldn't make a very good field geologist 😅 All I could think about with you on those rocks was 'slitheries'! 😮

[@shawnwillsey]

It was December and chilly.

[@johnagazim4199]

Shawn, have you been monitoring the activity at the Campi Flegrei ?

[@OmegaSparky]

Thanks for the video. I was hoping you might talk about why the fault ends there and what role the salton sea and the imperial fault play. Is the imperial fault in a way a continuation of the SA fault?

[@davidsavage6227]

Near Pearblossom, CA, the Devil’s Punchbowl has sand and seashells, even though it is halfway up the northern side of the San Gabriels. The San Andreas goes by this area, and the California Aqueduct runs through the area. How can they keep the aqueduct from breaking, even though there is constant movement along the adjacent fault? Is the Punchbowl a form of splaying? Multiple faults intersect there. You can also find the Punchbowl on the Mojave side of Wrightwood in the San Gabriels.

[@bobfillmore384]

Thanks for the up-close look. This is the southern end of the fault, but the plate boundary must continue south… why isn’t there surface evidence of this? Why does the fault stop here?

[@markofdistinction6094]

San Andreas Fault cracks me up.

[@CarrieBeth]

That's TOO F Funny! Lmao 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@anthonygnewbreast1609]

The leading edge of the lake is the lateral end westward to the other fault southward

[@yvettehugues]

Some scientists have said that the Bay Area is sitting on a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off and that’s scary because you’ll never know when a earthquake might hit

[@artsilva]

Im wondering if the San Andreas is connected to the Imperial Fault as the pacific plate is a northerly shifting mass taking coastal central/southern California and Baja California with it..

[@wildcat1530]

Do you think the Hayward fault would cause more problems if it become active?

[@weworks7811]

cali is gonna have a big one soon

[@marthaanderson2656]

it would be interesting to look at Urban San Andreas and some of the engineering that goes into safety and infrastructure. Perhaps someone in the engineering Dept at the U has an inside contact with a local authority

[@hapyjac6713]

Could the Imperial Fault react with the San Andreas Fault to make everything on the West side, from the Gulf of California to around San Francisco become an island? Just an idea! Want to take it a bit farther, how about the North end of the San Andreas reacting with the Cascadia Fault? Just another thought!

[@jimnichols9604]

I have stayed at Lark Spa which is at the end of the fault and drove over the crack in the road every day

[@Meant2BVegans]

😱

[@Dragrath1]

A Fascinating region geologically in essence a mid ocean ridge extending into the plate and only kept dry by the barrier that is the Colorado river delta. With sea level rise due to global warming and the melting of sea ice I doubt it will remain dry for much longer once the destabilized ice of Greenland and western Antarctica that has passed several tipping points and has already started to catastrophically collapse finishes failing we could be looking at several hundred meters of sea level rise. While the San Andreas is conventionally thought of as the boundary with the Pacific plate the Seismic tomography of the western US and GPS data makes me suspect that is actually inaccurate as the deeper solid mantle discontinuity beneath the East Pacific Rise cuts through Northern California eastern Oregon the Snake river plain before turning south separating the Colorado plateau and Rio Grande rift before bending back west into the Salton Sea and or emerging splitting Baja California from North America via the Gulf of California. In a sense the Basin and Range + Colorado Plateau and California might be considered In that picture to be a crustal thrust sheet the main difference between the sides of the San Andreas fault is that to the East the crust is still braced/supported against the motion of the Pacific plate by Cascadia and the main portion of North America which hasn't yet crossed over the East Pacific Rise discontinuity. It would be interesting to know how this system will evolve in the future my guess is that the Great Valley Sierra Nevada block will be the next to detach being only barely connected to North America proper to the North. One fascinating prospect which may shape this future trajectory comes from a geologically recent appearance of a lineament up in Cascadia which has a component of magma chemistry associated with Yellowstone hotspot, i.e. deep upwelling elements usually depleted in the crust and upper mantle. This lineament has volcanism closer and further from the trench and from seismic tomography the subducted slab appears to be thinning here. It is also directly parallel/continuous with the Snake river Plain. It raises the possibility the EPR may be reasserting its presence through the Cascadia Subduction zone as the stint of the ridge discontinuity zig zagging as transform offset ridge like extension through Oregon and Northern California does match the trajectory of motion of North America which suggests it could possibly be due to North America dragging on the ridge due to the subducting slab with the heat flux reasserting a more direct pathway. The reason that could change things is if it happens subduction could end up being brought west of of the EPR with slab pull pulling in the Pacific slab from the east if the Gouda ridge segment fades away as its heat flux gets presumably redirected. That is of course all speculation based on limited evidence but were it to happen it could lead to the Basin and Range + Colorado Plateau and California provinces becoming an almost New Zealand like continental landmass millions of years in the future if the EPR succeeds in rifting the continent apart.

[@TheDanEdwards]

4 meters of sea level rise will doom the areas of the Trough currently below sea level. The sediment buildup near the end of the Colorado River will not be enough to hold back the Gulf of California. But if we have 4m of sea level rise our societies will be in crisis anyway so most people likely will not pay attention to the desolation in this area.

[@Riverguide33]

👍

[@beautyqueeninminneso]

Please don't forget to give his video a thumbs up and support his channel. Subscribe if you haven't already. Amazing information.

[@shawnwillsey]

Thank you.

[@robtippin9111]

😎

[@lisamarie6611]

bye.......lol I live by a living ONE and this fight is not over!

[@scotts595]

Pretty close to the original beach lol

[@slaytonmarks7537]

Where is the gold there?

[@Odin33356]

When California goes Yellowstone goes so we mine the fault lines at the salt n sea for lithium and subsidize electric cars.

[@Odin33356]

If the aviation industry advanced at all planes would have dimples like golf balls to increase strength,reduce weight, improve aerodynamics and stabilize flight. Our fastest craft resembles the peregrine falcon. The peregrine falcon is the fastest dive bombing bird. The golf ball has dimples like a peregrine falcon and every other bird that has ever flown. Birds are perfect but planes and humans are not so we say no catastrophe goes to waste because they're all engineered in a way good watches have capacitors not batteries unfortunately God is for lithium miners to blame for California falling into the ocean 🙏.

[@Odin33356]

This country has no men at all .

[@Odin33356]

Enjoy your war on the Jesus trades, love and intelligence.

[@Odin33356]

Humanity and the planet have no representative

[@Odin33356]

Everything's a conspiracy theory including what merging on the freeway means and if the placenta is for the baby or science.

[@markjeghers4408]

But who's fault is it?

[@timothyboles6457]

Wow, not what I expected about the start of the San Andreas fault. Kinda underwhelming. I was expecting it to extend down into Mexico and the sea of Cortez. Having lived in the shadow of the fault most of my life, and now back living between the San Andreas fault and the branching Hayward fault.

[@candacebradshaw2315]

Get Out Now!

[@leroyessel2010]

The Agess Inc company by Nathan White is working to restore the Laguna Salada, Salton Sea and I wish he would include Death Valley so I can change the name to Life Valley with help from Hydrogen Dollar to replace the Petrol Dollar by making ocean water more valuable than oil with cavitation not old fashioned electrolysis by 5 year old Canadian company called Eirex Tech the Tether Armageddon investment fund with billions of dollars could fund or partner with.

[@irene1655]

Every since I came to California in 1972, they have said the "Big One" is imminent. It's easy to see why people become complacent regarding earthquakes.