The Hayward Fault runs from San Pablo Bay to Fremont. The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) through California. Doser, Diane I., Kim B. Olsen, Fred F. Pollitz, Ross S. Stein, and Shinji Toda (2009), The 1911 M∼6.6 Calaveras earthquake: Source parameters and the role of static, viscoelastic, and dynamic Coulomb stress changes imparted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Bull.Seismol. The largest historical quake on the Calaveras Fault was a M6.6 earthquake in 1911. He noted that there have been several large earthquakes linked to construction of dams and reservoirs in India and Egypt. The Calaveras Fault is a mostly right-lateral, strike-slip fault. It is one of the fastest creeping fault segments in the San Francisco Bay Region. The San Andreas fault system is the … “As I understand it, the excavated material [at Calaveras] was mostly put back into the nearby new dam embankment,” he said. The fault cuts through the towns of Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton, Sunol, and Hollister. It is also being subducted far to the northwest into the Aleutian Trench. The fault divides into three segments, each with different characteristics and a different degree of earthquake risk. The Calaveras and Hayward faults extend up the east side of the San Francisco Bay. They came one after the other along the Calaveras Fault in Santa Clara County. The initial earthquake Amer., 99, 1746–1759, doi: 10.1785/0120080305 That makes it a favorite laboratory for Earth Scientists and students to see faulting in slow-motion. Some scientists predict that the Bay Area's the next major quake will occur on this fault. “I think the swarm is just a good reminder of seismic hazard that exists along the fault.”. Some 600 quakes struck San Ramon, also near the Calaveras Fault, in October 2015 (Xue et al, 2018). Most likely, the earthquakes are simply releasing built-up stress due to the ongoing motion along the Calaveras Fault, Harlan says. Construction on the new Calaveras Dam exposed faults not previously mapped. “There could be fluids in the fault zone, for example.” He suggested there might be areas of geothermal activity in the fault zone, as well. A magnitude-1.9 tremor on October 8 was the latest in a series of small earthquakes near Northern California’s Calaveras Dam, located about 38 miles (61 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. Credit: Dicklyon (CC BY-SA 4.0). Calaveras Dam is located on the left (north) edge of the reservoir in the photograph. Lian Xue, Roland Bürgmann , David R. Shelly, Christopher W. Johnson, Taka’aki Taira (2018), Kinematics of the 2015 San Ramon, California earthquake swarm: Implications for fault zone structure and driving mechanisms, in press, Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The similarity of seismograms recorded by two seismic stations demonstrate that the 31 October 2007 moment magnitude M5.4 Alum Rock earthquake is a repeat of a 1955 M L 5.5 earthquake. The first was a 4.0 magnitude earthquake about six miles northeast of San Martin around 6:48 a.m., according to USGS, and another shortly after east of Morgan Hill. It struck along the Calaveras Fault and had a depth of 7.4 kilometers, according to the USGS. are the most studied and understood fault systems in the world. Over 70 quakes have struck in the area around the Calaveras Dam since mid-August. We suggest that Zone V fails only … 178, pg. Along sections of the Central San Andreas and southern Calaveras faults in California, we map rates and patterns of fault creep over 150 km by comparing two older airborne … Doubtfire.” The quakes are occurring at a depth of 5-7 km (3-4 mi) on a heretofore unmapped fault or set of faults, and exhibit a diversity of mechanisms, some similar to the ‘right-lateral’ (whichever side you are on, the other side moves to the right) Calaveras Fault, and others perhaps related to the ‘blind thrust fault’ that has jacked up Mount Diablo. It is unclear on which faults these quakes are occurring, but this activity is a sign that the area is anything but quiet. Final Technical Report to US Geological Survey, National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. Engineers moved 12 million cubic yards of earth and rock to make room for and build the new dam. The new dam was designed to withstand a magnitude-7.25 earthquake. Holocene slip rate and earthquake recurrence of the northern Calaveras fault at Leyden Creek, northern California. Although the area has seen little significant seismic activity over the past 100 years, paleoseismic studies at Leyden Creek about one mile (2 kilometers) north of the dam indicate that this section of the northern Calaveras fault has generated a number of ground rupturing earthquakes of possibly up to around magnitude-7.0 over the last 2,500 years (Kelson et al. The Pacific Plate is a major section of the Earth's crust, gradually expanding by the eruption of magma along the East Pacific Rise to the southeast. In other words, we don’t know for certain if this northern section of the Calaveras Fault is due for another big quake in the near future. There are several reasons why these earthquakes may be occurring here. The USGS database shows that there is a 19.41% chance of a major earthquake within 50km of Calaveras County, CA within the next 50 years. California Geological Survey Despite the apparent lessened activity on the northernmost trace of the Calaveras, it does appear to have spawned a Magnitude 6.9 earthquake on July 3, 1861, causing continuous ground rupture, 6-8 miles … In 1979, the 5.7M Coyote Lake Earthquake ruptured to the south of the 1984 and 1911 earthquakes. When full, it can store 96,850 acre-feet, or 31 billion gallons of water. If you live or work in the East Bay, this is the time to ask yourself if you are quake ready. Details of the 3D fault geometry at stepovers and bends—particularly in urban settings—are often lacking, limiting efforts to constrain hazard calculations in these areas. Although most of the quakes in this week’s swarm are 3-5 km (2-3 mi) from the Calaveras Fault, the swarm has been migrating toward the Calaveras over the past few days. The Calaveras Fault: It is possible to walk down Locust Street from Vista Hill Park and walk through the neighborhood to examine the structural damage to streets, curbs, walls, and buildings that are slowly being deformed, warped, or broken by the slow creeping motion of the Calaveras Fault. The San Andreas fault system is to the west, the Garlock fault is to the south and the faults of the Sierra Nevada are to the east. During excavation of Observation Hill, faults that had never before been mapped as … The white lines … Within a minute, it was followed by a magnitude 3.6 quake along the Calaveras Fault in Santa Clara County. Most researchers believe that strain accumulated along the Calaveras south of Calaveras Reservoir is transferred to the Hayward fault on the Mission Hills fault (Oppenheimer and Macgregor, 1991). Those studies indicate timing of the most recent large earthquake is poorly constrained but suggest an average interval between surface rupturing earthquakes of 250 to 850 years, highlighting the uncertainty in what seismologists call the “recurrence interval” of major earthquakes. This system forms the plate tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate. It's a kind of "Faults For Dummies!" Two 3.4 magnitude earthquakes struck hours apart in the same area in Northern California on Sunday, according to officials. The north-northwest trending Calaveras Fault makes a westward bend or stepover under the northern end of the reservoir, crossing from the east bank of the reservoir south of the dam to the west side of Observation Hill which forms the left (west) abutment of the dam, according to a technical report on the Calaveras Fault. This earthquake and its aftershocks took place within a very dense seismic network. The Hayward Fault splinters from the Calaveras Fault, which itself is an offshoot of the The north-northwest trending Calaveras Fault makes a westward bend or stepover under the northern end of the reservoir, crossing from the east bank of the reservoir south of the dam to the west side of Observation Hill which forms the left (west) abutment of the dam, according to a technical report on the Calaveras Fault. Fault connectivity defines the maximum earthquake rupture length, and the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of faults affects the dynamics of fault rupture, slip, and ground motion (11–15). A magnitude 3.7 earthquake was reported Tuesday morning 2 miles from Morgan Hill, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At that time, most U.S. seismic observatories were run by scientist priests at Jesuit universities. Over 70 small quakes have struck beneath Observation Hill since mid-August. Repeating earthquakes can be grouped in three categories: 1) small cumulative slip and medium depths (3-7 km), characteristic of the northern Hayward fault; 2) large cumulative slip and medium to large depths (3-11 km), characteristic of the Calaveras fault; and shallow events (less than 3 km), occurring only at the junction between the Hayward and Calaveras faults. “We really don’t know what causes an earthquake swarm,” said Roland Burgmann, a geologist at the University of California-Berkeley. The largest earthquake within 30 miles of Calaveras County, CA was a 3.3 Magnitude in 2017.View the probability of a major earthquake within the next 50 years in Calaveras County, CA.View the number of earthquake incidents in Calaveras County, CA by year that are more than 2.5 Magnitude. Earthquake Information for Calaveras County, California. In California, the plate is sliding northwestward along a transform boundary, the San Andreas Fault, toward the subduction zone. Construction on the new Calaveras Dam was completed last year. Hayward-Calaveras fault zone (HCFZ), characterization of the creep rates along the faults with a high spatial resolution is necessary. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 101(B3), 5961-5975. Witter, R. C., Kelson, K. I., Barron, A. D., & Sundermann, S. T. (2003). 's (1990) Zone V "stuck patch" on the central Calaveras fault, providing new support for their model of Calaveras fault earthquake activity. It produced the October 30, 2007 … But by the time these professors began to die in mid-century, their lifelong seismogram archives were thrown out. A series of small earthquakes near the recently built Calaveras Dam replacement is a reminder of the significant seismic hazard at the new dam site. The first quake was reported at 6:58 a.m. As a precaution, the water levels in the reservoir were lowered to about 40% capacity in an attempt to mitigate downstream hazard should a major earthquake compromise the dam. This article has been updated to reflect recent earthquakes in the swarm. The Calaveras fault system runs over 80 miles, from south of Hollister into the Danville-Walnut Creek area. The northern segment of the Calaveras Fault is virtually locked and this segment of the fault creeps at a rate between 2 and 3 mm/yr. Studies conducted in the late 1990s indicated that the original dam, which was built in 1919, didn’t meet seismic safety standards given its construction and proximity to the nearby Calaveras Fault. Kelson, K. I., & Sundermann, S. T. (2007). The reservoir is located less than 20 miles from where Tesla is based in Fremont, California, and sits on the Calaveras fault system. Most faults do not creep at all, but parts of the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras all do. Both occurred on Oppenheimer et al. The SFPUC’s Completion Fact Sheet for the recently completed Calaveras Dam Replacement Project (CDRP) indicates that the fault runs only about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the new dam (SFPUC, 2019). Construction on a new earth-and-rock-fill dam began in 2011 and was completed in May 2019, according to the SFPUC. At the southern end of its central stretch it creeps at about 14 mm/yr dropping northward to about 6 mm/yr (0.24 inch/yr) of creep at its … Excavated areas were extensively mapped to maintain a precise record of the geologic features in the subsurface that could affect the new dam’s seismic resilience. Credit: SFPUC. The white lines indicate faults recognized by the USGS. The slip rate along the fault … The Bay Area fault system and the spot (red star) where the Hayward Fault branches off from the Calaveras Fault. Kelson, K. I., Simpson, G. D., Lettis, W. R., & Haraden, C. C. (1996). During the past week, 75 quakes have rattled the beautiful town of Danville, scene of the beloved Robin Williams movie, “Mrs. Only one 1911 seismogram from the U.S. survived, from the University of St. Louis, which was saved … Nevertheless, should this swarm penetrate the Calaveras Fault, the chances of a larger shock will climb, and the monitoring vigilance will intensify. Geodetic monitoring of the Calaveras fault near this location indicates about 6 mm/yr (0.24 inches/year), but further south near Hollister the … More than 35 quakes ranging as high as a magnitude-3.5 have been recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey since September 27. However, the rms residuals for P-wave arrivals at many of the network stations were as high as 0.25 sec due to the laterally heterogeneous structure of this area which deviates from the … Because of this, “the static stress change at depth must have been minimal.” This suggests that excavation during dam construction is not likely to be the cause of this swarm. This is a relief to the 27 million residents who rely on the Calaveras Reservoir. In Hollister the Calaveras Fault is displaying aseismic motion—one side of the fault is slipping past the other side of … With a slip rate of about 15 mm/yr (0.6 in/yr) and a length of about 100 km (60 mi), the Calaveras is highly active and certainly capable of a M7+ earthquake. The reservoir sits atop a major branch of the San Andreas Fault system called the Calaveras Fault. The largest earthquake within 30 miles of Calaveras County, CA was a 3.3 Magnitude in 2017. Soc. Monitoring Velocity Variations in the Crust Using Earthquake Doublets: An Application to the Calaveras Fault, California July 1984 Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 89:5719-5731 It’s the latest quake in an ongoing swarm that started ramping up on August 17, 2020. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publishes updated frequency and severity likelihood every six years for the entire U.S. Earthquake swarms usually end without a major event and generally die out within days to months. The Calaveras Fault, like the San Andreas Fault to the west, is a right-lateral strike-slip fault that is part of the San Andreas Fault System in the San Francisco Bay region. As far as dam safety, the SFPUC confirmed that there were “no impacts at all to the dam or its surrounding facilities” following any earthquakes in this swarm. Risk … Earthquake scientists are far more worried about the potential violence of a more northern stretch of the Calaveras Fault, between the towns of Danville and San Ramon. ... Like all of California, the Central Valley—which is ringed by faults—is earthquake country. Two minutes after 9 a.m., a third earthquake hit, registering a magnitude of 3.3 at a depth 4.3 km. With a slip rate of about 15 mm/yr (0.6 in/yr) and a length of about 100 km (60 mi), the Calaveras is highly active and certainly capable of a M7+ earthquake. But by the time these professors began to die in mid-century, their lifelong seismogram archives were—inconceivably and unconscionably—thrown out. But “they always cause discussion and debate,” said Burgmann. The quakes were all centered along the Calaveras fault system, which is located in the hills east of the San Francisco Bay Area. Another swarm struck the central portion of the Calaveras Fault in April 2016 (http://temblor.net/earthquake-insights/calaveras-535/); neither triggered a larger shock. USGS It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal). The Calaveras Fault and lost seismograms . While … The fault cuts through the towns of Walnut Creek, San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton, Sunol, and Hollister. “Swarms may indicate other activity in the area,” said Burgmann. Calaveras County, CA has a moderate earthquake risk, with a total of 1 earthquakes since 1931. The Calaveras fault here is unusual because it creeps, moving a few millimeters per year, instead of storing up energy and releasing it all in a big earthquake. The quake was reported at 10:35 a.m. and was centered east of Alum Rock Park. 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