Unraveling the Secrets of the Southern San Andreas Fault - Perspectives on Ocean Science

The southern San Andreas Fault in California has not had a large earthquake in approximately 300 years, yet the average recurrence interval for the previous five ruptures is about 180 years. Join Scripps Oceanography geoscientist Neal Driscoll as he presents new findings on a possible relationship between these earthquakes and the flooding of Lake Cahuilla, which forms episodically as the Colorado River switches course and flows north into the Salton Trough. Learn how new data on the timing and magnitude of past earthquakes are being used to assess the potential for large earthquakes in the region. [1/2011] [Show ID: 20499]
Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series
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[@richardgarcia7521]

But since the San Andreas Fault is part of the East Pacific Ridge, which is shifting east and west, just like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, I wonder if the part of California west of the fault will be split from the continent and become an island. By pushing the west land portion west, but block the east side from shifting west with the rest of North America. Just like how the East African Rift, which is part of the same ridge that formed the Red Sea, is in the process of splitting the land portion east of the fault, away from Africa and becoming an island in the future. While the rest of Africa is currently in fact being blocked from shifting east due to the Arabian Plate & Fault, causing Africa to shift north instead of east. One tectonic detail rarely mentioned is the fact that a large part of east Russia is in North America. Not officially, but it sits on the North American Plate, which doesn't end beneath the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, but over 1,000 miles further west than that. So unlike the Mediterranean, which Africa is slowly closing up, the Bering Strait is not closing up. And in fact- much of Japan sits on the North American Plate, which extends around the Pacific Ocean and further in length than just the portion that is colliding with Asia, causing land to uplift, forming the Chersky mountain range. But since the east end of Asia is not shifting east against the Bering Strait, the tectonic collision has not resulted in the Bering Strait gradually getting narrower or to gradually close up. If the Bering Strait had already closed up enough to remain closed after the last ice age, Russian territorial expansion hundreds of years ago would have extended into North & South America. And unlike with the Europeans colonizing the Americas, Russia would not have allowed any other Country to colonize it. The only reason Russia was able to colonize what is now Alaska, but not all of the land in the Americas, was because by then, Europeans had control of so much land. Russian expansion was blocked beyond Alaska by Britain and Spain. In fact, Russian America (Alaska) once expanded as far south as the northern border of California. But we're pushed back by Britain. And as a reminder: California used to be part of Mexico. So if Russia kept it's land and Mexico kept theirs, Russia would have shared a border with Mexico, and the U.S. would have never had a west coast. So when the U.S. and Canada, or the Oregon Country (Britain) agreed with the border being the 49th parallel, the only west coastal U.S. States were Washington and Oregon. Of course it wasn't enough. And since the U.S. couldn't expand northward, they expanded southward and took California for example. But they let Mexico take back California's Baja Peninsula. When the U.S. tried to settle the border with Britain, they tried to move the border much further north. To the 54th parallel. It would have left Canada with a pretty narrow west coast. The lower States and Alaska would have been less than 100 miles apart. And the I.S. would have kept land as far north as more than half of what today are British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I wish so. As for Mexico, we seized it from Spain. In effect- saving Mexico from Spain. So in doing so, Mexico entirely became an American Territory. Just like Puerto Rico. In effect, the U.S. had the power to keep all of Mexico. I wish they did. So the U.S. deserved the amount of land annexed by the U.S. And in defeating the British and declaring American Independence from the British, the U.S. should not had allowed the British to colonize anymore land. As for Russia, not only am I glad that they sold us Alaska, but if only Russia wasn't such a threat for a nuclear war or WW3, the U.S. easily could have built an earth fill land bridge and connect the Americas with Afro-Eurasia. I even have a name for the supercontinent: Afro-Eurasiamerica. Although the Bering Strait is 54 miles wide at its narrowest, the depth varies no more than 150 ft. The Diomede Islands near the middle also would have helped fill in the separation. The total volume of gravel it would take to build a land bridge would be equivalent to 1500 ft by 1500 ft by 1500 ft. Less than some mineral mines in the U.S., such as the Bingham Copper Mine in Utah. In Chile, the Escondida (copper mine) is 2.7 miles long, by 1.9 miles wide, by 3,000 ft deep. That's 105 times more than it would take to build a land bridge across the Bering Strait and connect the Americas with Afro-Eurasia. Surely it can be done. Surely we could change the world map by connecting 5 official continents. If only Russia were not such a problem. We wouldn't just connect those continents. And such a land bridge would not lead from nowhere to nowhere. At least not for long. A proposed railway could be built to link large populations from each of these 5 continents. Not for tourism, but for cargo. It would justify the cost of the whole project, because it would save trillions of (U.S.) dollars in shipment. Shipment on ship takes weeks; shipment by train would only take days. Loading and unloading shipping containers takes far longer on cargo ships than on trains. Americans probably would not want to wait almost 2 weeks to get to Europe by train, but many tourists from Europe and Asia would be willing to wait that long. Train tickets would cost less than plane tickets. Plus, they would be willing to wait that long to enjoy the American Dream during their tour.

[@oscarmedina1303]

Thank you for posting this video. It was very informative and enjoyable to watch.

[@jamiboothe]

Excellent information and comical delivery makes for easily absorbed information. Thank you!

[@Amy-zb6ph]

Ironically, I was looking at the recent earthquake maps when the first Ridgecrest Earthquake struck. My fan always shakes where I am so I only noticed the earthquake when I realized that there was shaking going in a second direction. By that time, the earthquake was basically over. The second one didn't phase me for a while either because I thought it was an aftershock. I only went into the hall, the strongest place in the house, when the earthquake lasted fora good while. I am about 100 miles away from where those earthquakes struck but they felt so much like a wave that it has to be a bit stronger for you to realize it's an earthquake worth doing something about. It's interesting that we had those Ridgecrest earthquakes too because of the stress in Death Valley. I knew from the first earthquake that was 6.4 that there was obviously a fault there that people didn't know about. I wonder now if we'll get a Fort-Tejon-like north to south propagation on the San Andreas Fault now that we've had these earthquakes so close to the Garlock Fault, which connects to the SAF. We'll see. I don't want to see people get hurt but I kinda hope that we can all be outside or something when we have a big earthquake on the SAF.

[@AntiVilificationLeague]

A really great presentation. Such an important message. Thanks for the upload and to the creators, thanks for the painstaking research!

[@emotionalinvalid]

excellent talk by Dr. Driscoll , and peppered with a good sense of humor.

[@stephenhudson6543]

Dr Neal informe Dr Neal that it was an earthquake that created the Salton Sea it tilted to land and cut off outflow so the Colorado River flooded and created the lake

[@torputube]

fascinating. Glad this was posted.

[@jonathanturek5846]

Scrippys ! I had a giant bottlenose dolphin jump over me as I was attempting to duckdive a wave... Will never forget that

[@pocketspy]

A recent episode of Nova covered the subject of returning diverted waters back to the Colorado. The plan, which is doing well, releases water at certain times of the year to mimic the seasonal flooding that use to happen in the river delta. The marsh is now growing and expanding due to this program. I'd like to know if it is now having any affect on the Salton Sea.

[@Amy-zb6ph]

When that Easter earthquake hit, I was right by the door and I totally sprinted out it, exactly how we are not supposed to do. I ended up running for probably a half a mile and then I realized that the earthquake was probably over already so I stopped to check. It was over but it sure did feel good to run. I even ran uphill, despite the fact that we don't get tsunamis here.

[@Amy-zb6ph]

The good thing was that no one else had run outside and up the hill with me. I wouldn't even have done so had I not been literally so close to the door that I could just reach and open it.

[@SCGATOR2001]

@@Amy-zb6ph I was wondering who the good looking chick was, now I know....

[@angelcitygirl]

I really enjoyed this and started a drinking game for every time he said "okay." DRUNK in 5 minutes. :)

[@Panther7108]

Angel CityGirl I’m saving this video and playing tonight 😂

[@rebaleasure9304]

@@Panther7108 😂😂😂

[@get__some]

that's asking for alcohol poisoning. kay?

[@deepquake9]

🤣🤣🤣

[@KathyWilliamsDevries]

Try Nick Zentner livestreams for drinking games. I am the drink word master

[@chinandega81]

So basically....this explains why we the big one hasn't happened yet. But it doesn't address how much farthur off in the future the big one may be now that there is a better understanding of the correlation between the water levels in the Salton Sea. I feel like there should be a part two to this investigation and video presentation lol.

[@DePlant]

Thank You Very Much! Very Interesting! I Apriciate!

[@davemendez5328]

Basically he's hinting for all of us to run for our lives!!

[@danielmelhorn7988]

Neal looks like Vic Morrow and his voice also.

[@wayneandrews9298]

Neal's voice looks like vic morrow ?

[@hapuna71]

What I’m curious about is the effect of population growth and the associated infrastructure on the deflection of the crust and its impact on the stress generated on the faults? How does this compare with the stress generated in the past by water’s mass compared to the mass associated with population growth?

[@koochakoorocknrollhoochyko3632]

I always thought that the San Francisco Bay area earthquake may have been prompted by the weight change of people going to the statium.

[@kehenabeach4418]

Mmm... K !!!

[@glershnern5300]

Mm'alright

[@wayneandrews9298]

Que ?

[@lmvath211]

2027-33

[@Amy-zb6ph]

Scientists definitely need to eat or, as I used to say when passing out candy bars before we took a test, "Glucose for the brain!"

[@letfreedomring43]

It is safe to say all the money you have wasted in your research qualify you as a scienceishtist. You cant predict earthquakes but there is an amateur that smokes you research.