Hi Folks,

Today I took Don on a trip over the Rodgers Creek Fault to Bennett Valley, the epicenter of last September's 4.2 quake. The drive up and over the hill is quite stunning with many shady area's lining the winding road. In and around narrow roads lined with farm houses and the occasional winery, the marker for the turn toward the fault requires crossing over a bridge which is only large enough for one car and yet has a line down the middle dividing the bridge. Two Miata's might make it, but anything larger than that, its definetly a one car bridge.

Don's driving is ok, but at one point he scared 10 years off my life which I can ill afford. It happened at this point where the road was very narrow and he's pointing at something on the right and I thought at that moment, we were going off the side for sure. As I screamed in sheer panic, he assured everything was going to be alright. It took awhile for me to believe him.

Just past that Manzantas Winery is the quakes epicenter location. We turned off onto a private road and I pointed out to him what I had noticed last year, the hillside is full of volcanic bombs, some of formidable size. We drove up the hill for a distance and could easily see this finger of the Rodgers Creek Fault down below. This is exactly where the house lies that I inspected the day after the quake.

For those who missed my story, I was sent to do an inspection on this house by Seismo Watch. I found in various places the rock exterior of the home had broken away. Everything in the house was shifted from south to north and the most revealing sight was the creekbed that runs around the back of the house. It had huge boulders that were moved out of the sidewalls of the creek at least four inches from their original resting places. There were small fractures around the foundation and the basement had several fractures running up and down the walls. The inspection report now resides with the State of California listing the details of this inspection.

Going back down the driveway was when I decided it was time to get even with Don. I made him stop so I could look for rocks, and those that I found I made him carry all the way back to his vehicle. Mind you, this filled up the back third of his car. We found many samples of volcanic bombs, churt nodules, serpentine and sedimentary rocks. One of the rocks Don broke open had beautiful shades of bluish grey in small round circles inside. The drainage area next to the road was full of hundreds of rocks, however, most of them granite like the type found at my study area.

This around of about five or so miles in any direction has a landscape full of volcanic bombs, which are very apparent when driving in this area. It has a similarity to the road that leads from Red Bluff to Lassen Volcanic Park, which displays many bombs from the 1915 eruption.

While it was around 90 degrees in the shade in the area we were in today, the exploration was fun and produced another look at Sonoma Counties diverse seismic activity. From tectonics to volcanics, there is much to explore yet.

I told him one day I was going to get another sports car and treat him to the ride of a lifetime. Oh yeah.

Stay tuned for the further seismic adventures of Petra and Don.