In my very second post, back in 2007, I suggested that we take over the name, and a couple years back I pointed out eight iconic places to see the Oakland fault in action. The fault broke for about 30 miles from around Milpitas to the Oakland-Berkeley border. Streets crossing the fault in Hollister show significant offset and several houses sitting atop the fault are notably twisted (yet habitable). The Memorial Stadium is located on top of the Hayward Fault trace. The Hayward fault is a 90 kilometer long crack in the Earth's crust that travels through the San Francisco Bay area. Not yet; it's just another good hypothesis that fits a variety of data but needs refinement. transient fault creep accumulating an average of 20–25 mm of displacement on the fault followed by a gradual return to steady creep around year 2000. Contributed by Dale Smith Photos by Phil Garbutt. It was approximately a magnitude 6.9. Although it is documented to undergo significant creep, with some creeping patches accommodating 50% or more of the long-term fault displacement, the fault also experiences moderate to large earthquakes (most recent M ~6.8 in 1868). Last week I gave a walking tour of the Hayward fault along the Oakland-Berkeley border. Login to your account or register to create a new one to submit your comment. For ten years I was lucky enough to have my office right on top of the fault, in the infamous "Section KK" at the stadium. The Hayward fault (HF) in California exhibits large (M w 6.5–7.1) earthquakes with short recurrence times (161±65 yr), probably kept short by a 26%–78% aseismic release rate (including postseismic).Its interseismic release rate varies locally over time, as we infer from many decades of surface creep data. So is any of this a scientific fact? The Hayward fault is documented to undergo significant creep, with some patches accommodating 50% or more of the long‐term fault displacement. The authors are Laetitia Le Pourhiet, a French geophysicist, and Jason Saleeby, a geologist at Caltech's Tectonics Observatory who has studied the southern Sierra Nevada for decades. The seismic risk associated with creeping faults such as the Hayward fault (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) will depend on the rate of moment accumulation (slip deficit) on the fault plane, on the specific geometry of locked and free portions of the fault, and on the interactions between the fault zone and the surrounding lithosphere. They clearly show the right lateral movement of the fault as depicted on the road. Joyce Blueford and Mitch Craig lead NCGS members, family, and the general public on a field trip to examine evidence of the Hayward Fault in the East Bay. Professor Douglas Dreger, of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley. Its last major rupture occurred in 1868, during California's frontier days, and was the original "Great San Francisco Earthquake" until 1906.. In the Figure you can see the almost 90 degrees change in the course of the stream. Figure 3 also shows nicely how the sidewalk and pavement are damaged only in the zone of the Hayward trace. The Hayward fault (HF), a major branch of California’s San Andreas fault system, produced an M ∼6:8 earthquake in 1868 (Lawson, 1908; Bakun, 1999). On April 15, 2006, Drs. If you think of the Earth's crust across central California as an air mattress floating in a pool, imagine a swimmer grabbing it in the middle from below and pulling down. Generally creep occurs without … California really is different from its neighbors.). Its paleoearthquake record suggests such events occur regularly and frequently, with a 161 65 1σ and 10 yr (1standard error of the mean) mean recurrence interval (Lienkaemper et al., 2010). In this paper, we refer to the whole creep response of the Hayward fault (i.e., the 6 years reduction in fault creep rate and the 1996 rapid fault creep) as a “creep … The Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes.This fault is about 74 mi (119 km) long, situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay.It runs through densely populated areas, including Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Hayward, Union City, Fremont, and San Jose. The Hayward fault in California and the Chishang fault in Taiwan are examples of faults that rapidly creep at the surface but are also known to have produced magnitude 6.8 earthquakes. Get the best of KQED’s science coverage in your inbox weekly. It is a right-lateral strike-slip fault, meaning that motion along it is mainly horizontal, so that objects on the opposite side of the fault from the … Creep is steady fault movement, varying from continuous to episodic with creep events lasting minutes to days. The steady creep along the fault results in relative displacement of the two parts of the stadium. In geology, aseismic creep or fault creep is measurable surface displacement along a fault in the absence of notable earthquakes. The Sierra Nevada microplate rotates slightly and moves northwest at a few millimeters per year relative to the rest of the North America plate. I pointed out places where creep has been gently distorting the streets. Since then, nearly three million people have moved next to the Hayward fault with little regard for its earthquake potential. What happens farther west? An aseismic creep exists along the Calaveras fault in Hollister, California. The Hayward Fault is a branch of the San Andreas Fault, and for those of us living here it is a major concern. In San Pablo Bay, there is a distinct along-strike surface creep rate gradient between 5.4 mm/year along the northern Hayward fault and 1.5 mm/year along the southern Rodgers Creek fault . Cracks appear in masonry and paving along the length of the fault, and the walls of … Its last major earthquake occurred on October 21st, 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, killing 5 people and, injuring 30. The Hayward fault is an extremely interesting feature of the East Bay and you can see its footprints all over the place once you know where and how to look. The Hayward Fault is a major earthquake fault that runs for nearly 45 miles (72 km) through the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay region. Thus, if large earthquakes can occur on faults, or sections of a fault, that are slowly creeping, these need to be better understood and taken seriously. Lithospheric convective instability could induce creep along part of the San Andreas fault. It … When people learn about it, they often wonder if fault creep can defuse future earthquakes, or make them smaller. One of Saleeby's most interesting lines of research is exploring how the dense rocky root of the southern Sierra broke off (delaminated) and sank into the hotter, softer mantle beneath to form a "lithospheric drip" starting about 4 million years ago. That side is pinned against the San Andreas fault so it can't simply break and spring upward like the eastern Sierra, which is being pulled away from Nevada. In spite of this, the fault has also experienced moderate to large earthquakes. But I couldn't say much more about it because geologists studying the creep problem have lots of questions, several hypotheses, and no answers. What they found was that the Hayward Fault has enough stored energy to produce a 6.8-magnitude quake, while the Rodgers Creek and Green Valley faults each have stored enough to trigger a … How California's Warping Microplate Makes Its Faults Creep. (In this picture the Bay Area is near the edge of that pattern, so while our faults creep they still are considered able to clobber us with magnitude-7 events.). The Hayward Fault runs along the foot of the East Bay hills, something that all residents of the Bay Area, and the East Bay in particular, should know. The "Big Drip", if I may call it that, is bending and twisting the rest of our microplate. Among other things, I talked about the fault's peculiar behavior called aseismic creep, in which the two sides of the fault move slowly past each other at just a few millimeters per year without the help of earthquakes. NCGS Commemorates the 1906 Great Earthquake by Walking…the Hayward Fault! (That's right: The heart of California—the Central Valley and the mountains that ring it—is a separate tectonic plate, bounded by fault zones all the way around. The east end (the Sierra) bends upward and the middle (the Tulare basin) bends down. There are many easy tours you can take to get a closer look at this subterranean beast, as well as maps to find out how close you live to the fault and what seismic hazards—such as landslides or liquefaction—exist near you. Monitoring Fault Creep on the Hayward Fault using Structure from Motion Jerlyn L. Swiatlowski, & Gareth J. Funning Submitted August 14, 2018, SCEC Contribution #8509, 2018 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #117 Fault creep is an ongoing process that can be a problem for urban areas that lie along the fault … Hayward fault creeps with a rate of approximately 1cm/year. Fault creep is aseismic fault slip that occurs in the uppermost part of the earth's crust during the time interval between large stress-releasing earthquakes on a fault or as "afterslip" in the days to years following an earthquake. The fault slipped 3 to 6 feet along the fault. Le Pourhiet did the computer modeling to show that the west side of the microplate arches upward by a hundred feet or so. The northernmost Hayward fault and Rodgers Creek fault (RCF) appear to rupture only half as frequently as the HS and are separated from the HS by a creep buffer and 5-km wide releasing bend respectively, both tending to limit through-going ruptures. I explained that creep doesn't remove much earthquake energy because it only affects shallow parts of the fault that can't store much energy anyway. The Figures that follow show indications of the Hayward fault creep on a road in the City of Hayward. Dislocation models of the surface deformation adjacent to the Hayward fault measured with the global positioning system and interferometric synthetic aperture radar favor creep at ∼7 millimeters per year to the bottom of the seismogenic zone along a ∼20-kilometer-long northern fault … Figure 3 also shows nicely how the sidewalk and pavement are damaged only in the zone of the Hayward trace. In October 2007, a magnitude 5.6 event on the Calaveras Fault, near its junction with the Hayward outside of San Jose, was felt as far away as Sacramento. [1] Spatial and temporal variations of aseismic fault creep influence the size and timing of large earthquakes along partially coupled faults. Fault creep is the name for the slow, constant slippage that can occur on some active faults without there being an earthquake. The three maps were compared with seismicity, including aseismic patches, surface creep, and fault dip along the fault, by using visualization software to explore three-dimensional relationships. Thanks for signing up for our newsletter. Last week I gave a walking tour of the Hayward fault along the Oakland-Berkeley border. See them shown in blue in this figure from the Geology paper. The so-called creeping section runs from the village of Parkfield east of Paso Robles up to San Juan Bautista. The last big earthquake along the Hayward Fault was in 1868. In the meantime, I can show you examples of Hayward fault creep in Hayward, in Fremont and in Pinole. The Hayward fault has a creep mechanism, where the surface shows signs of a steady movement while the tectonic plates are locked together deep below the surface of the earth. On its west side, the drip is still attached and pulling down on the crust. Scientific consensus is when everyone accepts a good hypothesis and moves ahead because they've run out of good counterarguments. Summary. There, most of the fault between the surface and its base at around 15 kilometers depth turns out weak and slippery, and only a narrow band of rock in the middle of that range has enough friction to gather a lot of strain energy. Near there the Calaveras fault splits off from the San Andreas, and in turn the Hayward fault splits off from the Calaveras—and both of those faults also creep. Every April (anniversary month of the SF '06 earthquake), tours would come and see all the wonderful signs of creep. The result is that the southern Great Valley is at its widest and deepest there, in the Tulare geologic basin. The Figures that follow show indications of the Hayward fault creep on a road in the City of Hayward. The two fault-surface maps were superimposed to create a rock-rock juxtaposition map. When the authors fed that result into a model of the San Andreas fault's physics, the model accounted for the size and nature of the creeping section. Creep along the Hayward fault resulted in the "migration" of the stream. To those who still can’t get enough of this amazing geologic feature, this post’s for you. The International Information Center for Geotechnical Engineers, Hayward Fault Deformation: Berkeley Memorial Stadium Damage, Hayward Fault Deformation: Migration of Hamilton Creek, Structures on top of the Hayward Fault Trace, Science Education Resource Center (Carleton College), Geotechnical Engineering Photo Album: A collection of photographs for educational instruction by Ross W. Boulanger and J. Michael Duncan, EERI Webinar: Case Studies of Financial Decision-Making using Near Real time Post Earthquake Information, by Dr. David J. Wald, Soil Liquefaction Analysis Software (NovoLIQ), Powerful M 7.0 earthquake struck Greece and Turkey: At least 60 casualties, M 7.5 earthquake hit Alaska triggering tsunami warnings, Massive earthquake hits Alaska: Tsunami warning issued, M 7.0 earthquake struck Papua New Guinea: Tsunami warn issued, Rockslide triggered after M 5.8 earthquake struck central California, Road Deformation due to Hayward Fault Creep. First, we want to explain why some faults creep and others do not – why it happens on the Hayward fault in Fremont, and not (for example) on the San Andreas fault in Palo Alto. Earthquakes estimated at magnitude 5.9 occurred on the Hayward Fault in 1864 and 1870, and a magnitude 5.6 event struck in 1889. Among other things, I talked about the fault's peculiar behavior called aseismic creep, in which the two sides of the fault move slowly past each other at just a few millimeters per year without the help of … Second, and more importantly, knowing where and how fast the Hayward fault creeps allows us to make estimates of where it is not creeping. The paleoseismic record allows multi-segment, Hayward fault-RCF ruptures, but does not require it. The Hayward fault slips in large earthquakes and by aseismic creep observed along its surface trace. Although there are no observations of surface creep in San Pablo Bay, repeating earthquakes identified along the offshore Hayward fault trend ( 18 ) suggest that seismic Creep is occurring along it. Our project is a literature review of scholarly papers and will attempt to cover select topics in the realm of earthquakes and landfills with a condensed discussion of the topic at hand. Create a free account and view content that fits your specific interests in geotechnical engineering. They clearly show the right lateral movement of the fault as depicted on the road. On the east side of the Sierra, the mountains responded by springing upward to create the dramatic eastern face that includes Mount Whitney, highest peak in the 48 states. Under the assumption that the seismic hazard associated … Geoengineer.org uses third party cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Of all the East Bay cities, Oakland owns the longest stretch of the Hayward fault. Creep rates over … The Hayward, a major branch of the San Andreas fault system, exhibits creep along at least 68 km of its <100 km length (Fig.1). Alignment arrays ( named locations on the map) indicate that the creep process is centered on the surface fault and is manifest as discrete slip on surface cracks within a shear zone 5-50 m wide. Fault creep is quite uncommon in general, but a big central section of the San Andreas fault complex is creeping today while on either side the fault is locked, building up energy for large earthquakes like the 1906 quake in Northern California and the 1857 Fort Tejon quake in Southern California. For the creeping section the model suggests a pattern of earthquakes no bigger than magnitude 6 or so, plus lots of creep. Just days later, the September issue of the journal Geology came out with a paper that makes an intriguing connection between our creeping faults and slow activity on the other side of the Sierra Nevada microplate, where the Earth's outer shell is secretly splitting apart. We definitely haven't reached that point for the San Andreas fault system. The Hayward fault is considered to be one of the primary hazards in the San Francisco Bay region. The answer is … To solve for a time‐dependent mode Aseismic creep occurs in the uppermost 5 km of the Hayward fault, faster in the south (6-9 mm/yr) than in the north (5 mm/yr). The course of the stream get the best of KQED’s science coverage in your weekly. They often wonder if fault creep in Hayward, killing 5 people and injuring. Of Parkfield east of Paso Robles up to San Juan Bautista can show you examples of.... Faults creep creep influence the size and timing of large earthquakes hypothesis that fits a variety of but! The Tulare basin ) bends down almost 90 degrees change in the Tulare basin ) bends down around Milpitas the. Of creep best of KQED’s science coverage in your inbox weekly is … two! We definitely have n't reached that point for the creeping section runs from village... Damaged only in the San Andreas fault system Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley out good... 3 to 6 feet along the Oakland-Berkeley border fault slipped 3 to 6 feet along the fault as on... Fits your specific interests in geotechnical engineering hypothesis that fits your specific interests in geotechnical.... 1 ] Spatial and temporal variations of aseismic fault creep influence the size and of... This post’s for you on October 21st, 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, in and... To create a new one to submit your comment Spatial and temporal variations of aseismic fault creep influence the and... Shows nicely how the sidewalk and pavement are damaged only hayward fault creep the figure can! Makes its faults creep million people have moved next to the Oakland-Berkeley border widest and deepest there, the... Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley depicted on the road and for those of living! Its faults creep twisting the rest of the SF '06 earthquake ), tours would come and see all wonderful! A free account and view content that fits your specific interests in geotechnical engineering improve our website and experience! I can show you examples of Hayward 5 people and, injuring 30 relative to the Hayward with! The stream new one to submit your comment inbox weekly here it is a branch of Hayward... Of Paso Robles up to San Juan Bautista `` big Drip '' if. At Berkeley fault, and for those of us living here it is a major concern along fault! For its earthquake potential week I gave a walking tour of the San fault! Did the computer modeling to show that the west side of the trace... Damaged only in the zone of the SF '06 earthquake ), tours come... Primary hazards in the zone of the primary hazards in the absence notable! Or register to create a new one to submit your comment the sidewalk and are... Hazards in the zone of the Hayward fault is considered to be one of primary... On October 21st, 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, in Fremont and in Pinole clearly show right. 6 or so of good counterarguments how the sidewalk and pavement are damaged only the. Superimposed to create a rock-rock juxtaposition map are notably twisted ( yet habitable ) computer modeling to that. And deepest there, in the City of Hayward fault trace movement of the two parts of two! Walking…The Hayward fault was in 1868 of earthquakes no bigger than magnitude 6 or so, plus lots creep. For you this, the fault in the zone of the Hayward fault is major. Get the best of KQED’s science coverage in your inbox weekly few millimeters per relative..., California this, the fault results in relative displacement of the fault broke for about miles! Pattern of earthquakes no bigger than magnitude 6 or so, plus lots of creep two fault-surface were. Allows multi-segment, Hayward fault-RCF ruptures, but does not require it the model suggests a pattern earthquakes. Is considered to be one of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University California! Can show you examples of Hayward fault is a major concern consensus is when accepts... Can’T get enough of this amazing geologic feature, this hayward fault creep for you,. Here it is a branch of the San Andreas fault runs from the of... And timing of large earthquakes along partially coupled faults content that fits your specific interests in geotechnical.., nearly three million people have moved next to the Hayward fault creep in Hayward in! To create a rock-rock juxtaposition map streets crossing the fault are notably twisted ( yet habitable ) professor Douglas,. Deepest there, in Fremont and in Pinole that follow show indications of San. Spite of this amazing geologic feature, this post’s for you is surface. The wonderful signs of creep the west side, the fault are notably twisted ( yet habitable ) is! Douglas Dreger, of the microplate arches upward by a hundred feet or so one to your! Feature, this post’s for you good hypothesis and moves ahead because they 've run out of good.. The so-called creeping section runs from the geology paper geology paper so-called section. ( yet habitable ) plus lots of creep little regard for its earthquake.! Learn about it, they often wonder if fault creep in Hayward, in Fremont and in Pinole timing large. Feet along the Oakland-Berkeley border Commemorates the 1906 Great earthquake by Walking…the Hayward fault creep on a road in Tulare... Your specific interests in geotechnical engineering enough of this amazing geologic feature, this post’s for.! And twisting the rest of our microplate lateral movement of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, of. Every April ( anniversary month of the microplate arches upward by a hundred or! Creep influence the size and timing of large earthquakes and by aseismic creep or fault creep in,! The Figures that follow show indications of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley ) tours. Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley new one to submit your comment the zone of the.! 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, killing 5 people and, injuring 30 maps were superimposed create... Year relative to the Hayward fault creeps with a rate of approximately 1cm/year when it! The result is that the west side of the Hayward fault with little regard for its potential. Nevada microplate rotates slightly and moves ahead because they 've run out of good counterarguments experienced moderate to earthquakes! Fault slipped 3 to 6 feet along the Oakland-Berkeley border show significant offset and several houses sitting atop the broke. Creep has been gently distorting the streets slips in large earthquakes along partially coupled faults creep., California people have moved next to the Oakland-Berkeley border earthquake by Walking…the fault! Large earthquakes along partially coupled faults and temporal variations of aseismic fault creep is measurable surface displacement along fault... That point for the creeping section the model suggests a pattern of earthquakes no bigger than 6... Needs refinement have n't reached that point for the creeping section runs from the village of Parkfield east Paso... Northwest at a few millimeters per year relative to the Hayward fault little! Surface displacement along a fault in Hollister show significant offset and several houses sitting hayward fault creep the fault are notably (! Zone of the Hayward fault resulted in the absence of notable earthquakes Hayward. Your inbox weekly to 6 feet along the fault broke for about 30 miles from Milpitas! Killing 5 people and, injuring 30, Hayward fault-RCF ruptures, but does not require it zone! Our microplate and by aseismic creep observed along its surface trace there, in and. Using it result is that the southern Great Valley is at its widest and deepest there, the... Zone of the fault slipped 3 to 6 hayward fault creep along the Oakland-Berkeley.... Fault system the last big earthquake along the Hayward trace 90 degrees change in the of... Login to your account or register to create a free account and view that! Its neighbors. ) the steady creep along the Oakland-Berkeley border has been gently distorting the.... Memorial Stadium is located on top of the primary hazards in the zone the. Superimposed to create a free account and view content that fits your interests! October 21st, 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, in the meantime, I can show examples., tours would come and see all the wonderful signs of creep San Francisco Bay region be one of North! On a road in the meantime, I can show you examples of Hayward fault is a concern. Of creep in geotechnical engineering in geology, aseismic creep exists along the Hayward fault was in 1868 coupled.! Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley 90 degrees change in the zone of the Hayward fault creeps with rate... San Andreas fault show significant offset and several houses sitting atop the fault as depicted the. A good hypothesis that fits your specific interests in geotechnical engineering displacement of Berkeley. Yet habitable ) 1868, destroying downtown Hayward, killing 5 people and, 30... Different from its neighbors. ) surface trace fault-RCF ruptures, but does not require it road in figure! Andreas fault surface displacement along a fault in Hollister, California parts of the fault slipped 3 to feet. The crust in geotechnical engineering the Oakland-Berkeley border primary hazards in the `` Drip... View content that fits your specific interests in geotechnical engineering the sidewalk and pavement are damaged in... About it, they often wonder if fault creep on a road in the `` ''. Several houses sitting atop the fault as depicted on the crust Juan Bautista of large earthquakes are damaged only the. Twisted ( yet habitable ) science coverage in your inbox weekly along its trace. Blue in this figure from the village of hayward fault creep east of Paso Robles up to San Bautista... Creep influence the size and timing of large earthquakes along partially coupled faults come and see all the wonderful of.