Hi All. It appears that the quakes near Willits and Laytonville may be on two different faults. The fault that appears to be associated with these quakes is the Maacama fault. However the first motion solution indicates two different faults.

The 2.9M quake on 07/01/02 near Laytonville is shown as a “pure thrust” quake where as the 3.3M quake on 07/03/02 near Willits is shown as a “strike slip with normal faulting component.”

I suppose it is possible to have two quakes on the same fault with two different movements, but that would mean a very complicated fault and as the Maacama fault is known to go down to the mantle I don’t think it is capable of two quakes that close together with two different movements. However I do reserve the right to be wrong.

It seems whenever I learn something new and gain an answer to one of my questions all I ever accomplish is to generate more questions.

It is thought by some that the energy from the Rodgers Creek fault is being transferred to the Healdsburg and Maacama faults. If this is true then this may account for why there aren’t more quakes on the Rodgers Creek fault.

Not much is known about past activity on the Maacama fault so I haven’t been able to get any help from that. Come to think of it not much is known about any of the faults north of the Bay Area.

There are times I wished I never received any training as an analyst. All this thinking gives me a headache. Take Care…Don in creepy town