Hi All,

Don and I took a trip to Willits yesterday which means we drove to the west of the Rodgers Creek Fault until it broke and became the Maacama Fault which ends not far from Petrolia at the Triple Junction. There are quite a few compression folds to the west of each of these fault sytems, but not everywhere. Places south of Hopland and just south of Willits have remnants of severe slides which are constant, thus it would be difficult to separate the old from the new.

Just east of Ukiah lies the small town of Talmage which has a rather large compression fold and is a place which has been very seismicly active in the past two years. Ukiah itself is well know to have 4.0 range earthquakes at least every other year.

Willits though is quite different from the rest of the area. There's a steep incline going up to the city where it becomes far more dense in rock matter and then levels off upon arrival. It is surrounded by a beautiful pine forest and was pretty darn warm yesterday.

If you're ever headed that way you may wish to stop at Roxy's Rock Shop which is on the right, just upon entering the city. That lady has a huge collection of rocks and some geodes that are massive and full of amethyst. Her prices are more than fair, so if you've been wanting to increase your collection, that's the place to go. I bought a nice piece of rose quartz which is a pastel pink as I had no pink rocks in my collection and though not valuable, its very pretty.

There was a 2.2 earthquake at Talmage yesterday at around noon and of course, we were on the road headed for that location when it happened. Talmage is most noted for its Buddist colony of 10,000 residents.

From the soft curving Rodgers Creek Fault in Sonoma County to the jagged rocky terrain of the Maacama Fault in Mendocino County, its a beautiful drive except for rainy days in the winter.

Petra