Hi All. I guess I can no longer say that Rodgers Creek fault isn’t showing any indication of creep. It now appears that there is creep on the fault according to the latest release. This appears to have started around 2002.

Karen Grove, Department of Geosciences, San Francisco State University, San Francisco and S. John Caskey, Department of Geosciences, San Francisco State University, San
Francisco are the principal investigators.

“Rodgers Creek fault (RC1 on Fig. 6): clear evidence of the first reported right lateral creep on this fault. Movement has been consistent since we established the site in 2002 (3.6 mm/yr); second site RC2 (Fig. 6) remains preliminary.”

“Rodgers Creek fault: We now have several years of readings from our new sites on the
Rodgers Creek fault (Fig. 6). Our eleven readings over the past two years at the Santa
Rosa site (RC1 on Fig. 6) show a consistent creep rate of 3.6 mm/yr. our other new site
on the Rodgers Creek fault at Sonoma Mountain Road in Petaluma (RC2 on Fig. 6) was
reconfigured after it seemed we were measuring down slope soil creep rather than fault
creep. Our first measurements at the reconfigured site suggest rapid creep but after only 4
readings, the results are highly preliminary.”

Petra and I have been near the site on Sonoma Mountain Road and from what we could see the whole place is a slide looking for a place to happen. I’m not sure if they can get any readings from that area that could be considered reliable. The number of quakes currently being seen in the area supports the creep rate reported at the Santa Rosa site.

There is a 20 mile stretch of the fault between Petaluma and Wildcat Mountain where quakes are not occurring at a rate that would indicate creep. Quakes are occurring, but they are far and few between. Just to the north of this quiet stretch is where the quake swarm occurred in Dec. of 1981. Take Care…Don in creepy town

• Creep Study