Hi All. Had a great time at Fort Ross. The one disappointment though was that we weren’t able to get to the San Andreas fault itself. It’s located on private property in this area. However it can be seen from the Fort itself. It is about 2500 yards east of the Fort. There is no vegetation of any kind. No trees, brush, or grass. There are numerous slides above the fault. These may have been caused by large amounts of rain, but can’t be sure of that.

The surface at fault level is not nearly as steep as the surface east of the fault. Ripples can be seen radiating from the fault towards the west. I was told that these ripples are caused by the fault itself, as it appears to be lock at this location.

Using the NCSC catalog with a 10 mile radius I found one quake with a magnitude of M>3.3. This was on 03/31/1978. It was about 2 miles offshore west of the Fort. Very few earthquakes appear to be onshore and none of these appear to be on the fault it self. The depths of the quakes range from 0.28Km to 90.05Km with an average depth of 5Km. Average size of the quakes appear to be around M>1.6

The San Andreas fault ruptured 430 km (269 miles) from San Juan Bautista to the Cape Mendocino triple junction. The motion was predominately right-lateral strike-slip, with a peak displacement of 6 meters (20 feet) near Olema. I was told the displacement in the area of Fort Ross was 3.6 meters (12 feet).

I would have to say we had a good trip. Petra didn’t holler at me and there were only a couple of occasions where she tried to stomp a hole in the floorboards. For a moment though I thought I had drove an left Jan behind as I couldn’t see her in the rear view mirror. Just as soon as I found a wide spot in the road I pulled over and stopped. That was when I heard her voice saying “thank you Don.” I was relieved to know we hadn’t left her behind. All teasing aside. Both ladies were great. They endured the whole trip along the edge of the cliffs without saying a word. I’m really proud of them. Take Care…Don in creepy town