Hi Penny...our snow is melting...I suppose yours is not much yet except in sun?
I would not remember a M2. I'm pretty sure there was a M4+ near the Santa Ynez farther east towards Ojai, along with a bunch of other smaller ones, maybe a decade ago. I'd suggest that if the epicenter of the 2 is precise and accurate, it may not be on the Santa Ynez, if it dips south (one of the water tunnels and a well show south dip). Also, there is a limestone quarry near there. I spent some time hiking around the Santa Ynez and Little Pine faults 2 decades ago, and the quarry was active then. I vote blast.

Art Sylvester and others trenched the broad Santa Ynez zone near the east end Lake Cachuma and thought there was 1 large Holocene earthquake, and it was left-lateral. Farther east, in Blue Canyon, on the north edge of the fault zone near a path in heavy brush (or, should I say, poison oak), I measured strike slip slickensides with fibrous growth for near pure left-lateral, with right-lateral conjugate faults. No way to tell if these were young because whole fault zone not exposed. On the other hand, there is no sign of systematic left-lateral offsets of gullies across the fault, as was noted in a 1956(?) paper (Page and someone?).

I never published my ~200 fault slip measurements from upper Santa Ynez Valley, but I did publish my 500 measurements from Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa island in obscure publications. I don't do field work any more except on ships. I still hike, which is really what I was doing back then.

Namson and Davis had the Santa Ynez as a thrust fault. Maybe it has been both. Maybe it still is both on different strands.

So, how about a field work story from you?
Chris