SCEC INSTANeT
News
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SCEC INSTANeT
News |
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In partnership with The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Kerry Sieh and Aron Meltzner of Caltech are designing an interpretive trail along a particularly spectacular and accessible 2 km long stretch of the San Andreas Fault near Wallace Creek. Wallace Creek is located on the Carrizo Plain, near the town of McKittrick, a 3-4 hour drive north from Los Angeles. The trail opens in January 2001. The objective of the project is to provide a first rate interpretive trail at a geologically significant site along the San Andreas Fault. Students, scientists, and the general public will investigate the basic nature of strike slip faulting. SCEC will create the infrastructure and interpretive materials (durable signage, brochure content, and a website with directions to the trail). BLM has agreed to maintain the site and print the brochure into the foreseeable future. Jill Andrews, SCEC Director for Outreach, serves as one of the administrators for the project. Robert de Groot, SCEC Outreach Consultant, is a content, pedagogy and evaluation advisor for the project. The staff of the BLM Goodwin Education Center on the Carrizo Plain has provided valuable advice throughout the planning of the interpretive trail. Sieh began studying the place that would be called Wallace Creek in late 1975. The area is replete with the classic landforms produced by strike-slip faults: shutter ridges, sag ponds, simple offset stream channels, mole tracks and scarps. Two interpretive signs and five marker posts will identify several of these features for those who visit the site. The brochure describes the mechanics of a right lateral strike-slip fault as well as providing a discussion about earthquake hazards in California. A key topic in the brochure concerns earthquake history; particularly how Sieh calculated a slip rate using stream offset and Carbon-14 dating. Meltzner and de Groot are designing a website with a Wallace Creek photo gallery, frequently asked questions (FAQs), information about earthquake preparedness, and links to other relevant and interesting sites.
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Phone 213/740-5843 Fax 213/740-0011 e-mail: SCECinfo@usc.edu |
