Area of the Long Point Fault The Long Point Fault is located in Harris County, which covers 83,450 square miles located with in Houston, Teaxas City Limits. Research specifies that there are three sections of the Long Point fault that appear to be active; some sections of the Long Point fault have averaged more than 2 cm per year of vertical offset over the last 20 years. Evidence of the faults concludes it is a natural fault. The reason for activity is not caused by man, even though man’s activities are not helping the issues, but clearly humans are not the initial cause, biological activity can be in fact an adiitional cause for its movement. A brief description of the type of fault and its relationship with the strata and the faults …show more content…
Brief Geology of the Area
Geology of the subsurface rocks and surface sediments along the Long Point Fault its geological make up in Houston was originally developed from stream deposits from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains and now is a combinations of unconsolidated clays, clay shale’s, and poorly-cemented sands encompassed through great depths and goes on for several miles. The sedimentary component consist of a series of sands and clays that have been deposited on decaying organic matter which over time will be transformed into oil and natural gas thought the processes of biochemical activity. Even deeper and beneath these tiers is a water deposited layer of halite, known as rock salt when compressed over time and forced upward, the salt drew surrounding sediments into dome shapes, often trapping more oil and gas from it neighboring soils.
“Houston’s topography is largely in the northern portion of the Gulf coastal plain, a 40- to 50 mile wide swath along the Texas Gulf Coast and its elevation rises approximately one foot per mile inland. Northern and eastern portions of the area are largely forested; and we can find the southern and western sections are in fault zone areas. “. The Long Point Fault consist of Scarps due to prehistoric movement on the Long Point and Eureka Heights faults, for example, they are readily visible on topographic maps based on surveys completed in 1915–16” (Bonnett)
Extent and
The San Andreas fault line has caused constant development nightmares for large urban areas such as San Francisco as well as the other cities built on top of it. Fault lines are one of the side effects of the earth’s tectonic plates shifting that can result in devastating earthquakes. Some of the most devastating earthquakes in our modern era have occurred along the San Andreas fault line due to a dense population. The most notable and destructive earthquake on the San Andreas fault line occurred in San Francisco in 1906. The reason this earthquake was so deadly was because of its magnitude and the city’s poor planning. This earthquake was a wakeup call for San Francisco and force the city to revolutionize its knowledge on earthquakes and how to protect their city. Today San Francisco is one of the most well prepared cities for an earthquake and has made great discoveries in earthquake safety measures. The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco has drastically changed how the city has developed its zoning and building code policies, and its earthquake research.
The geography of Texas is hugely varied, from beaches to mountains. You can break Texas down into four main regions, divided by rivers, escarpments and other natural features. Texas has all the locations you might need: forests, cliffs, mountainous desert that could pass for Mars, NASA's Johnson Space Center and even a coastline. The Lone Star state is often divided into four regions: the Gulf Coastal Plains, the Interior Lowlands, also called the North Central Plains, the Great Plains and the Basin and Range or Mountains and Basins region. Each region has unique landforms and natural features.
The three faults being considered are thought to have influenced the character of some 120,000 square miles. The Big Pine, Garlock, and San Andreas faults are all mutually active, deep, long, and steep and noted as being conjugate shears. In concert, the faults have defined a primary strain pattern of relative east-west extension and north-south shortening of the area of 120,000 square miles. The large region is noted for its deformity, with the source of this being a northeast-southwest counterclockwise compressive couple. The compressive couple was potentially supported through drag as a result of the deep-seated movement of rock material from the Pacific region (Hill & Dibblee, 1953). The interaction of the faults in the San Andreas region since the Jurassic period have served to shape and contour the present geology of the land, while a study of the paleontology of the region likewise requires such knowledge to effectively determine conditions at any given point in time.
The New Madrid Fault lies along the western side of Kentucky along the border between Kentucky and Missouri. The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is made up of reactivated faults that were formed when North America began to split apart from Rodinia about 750 million years ago. The NMSZ Is in the middle of the North American tectonic plate. It is an abundant source of intraplate earthquakes. It is the most seismic area
• This earthquake may not have released all of the strain stored in its rocks next to the fault this reveals a potential earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the near future. The occurrence of the earthquake showed that the Earth did not exhaust all its strain and hence other earthquakes could be expected. However, the dates could not be predicted. The extent of the damage could have been much more devastating for the region, but with the earthquake occurring near the coast this made half of the felt area westward in the Pacific Ocean. The occurrence of aftershocks ten days later reinforces the unpredictability nature and hence makes Geology to be a study that is always evolving. In conclusion, the Earth and the study of cannot be exhausted as every natural occurrence provides a new puzzle to be solved.
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake tectonic setting was in the outermost shell of earth known as the crust this is composed of rigid plates that have been moving for hundreds of millions of years. Two of these moving plates meet in western California; the boundary between them is a zone of faults, the principal one being the San Andreas fault. The horizontal sliding of the Pacific Plate relative to the North American Plate, causes earthquakes along the San Andreas fault and similar plates near the region. The San Andreas fault is a transform plate boundary, accommodating horizontal relative motions (usgs.gov).
With earthquakes on the rise, we must figure out the cause of them and determine a solution to help limit or even prevent them from occurring. Since early 2009, earthquakes have been sweeping across the state of Oklahoma, causing many people to worry about their own well-being. Many scientists speculate the source of the earthquakes might be a result of Hydraulic Fracturing deep down in Earths’ crust. Hydraulic fracturing is a process in which oil and natural gas companies pump up to millions of gallons of wastewater, sand, and chemicals down drilled holes in order to release pockets of shale within the earth. This use of technology is in question of the potential cause or inducement of earthquakes in
Little Cottonwood Canyon is a site bursting with geological history, rock formations earthquake potential on the fault, prehistoric glacial formations, landslides, and many hazards associated with it. The Wasatch fault is bound to have a enormous earthquake in the future and has left behind numerous scars. The mountains have been engraved by glacial formations dated back to the Ice Age (~14,000 years ago). Rock falls and landslides have left hefty boulders as indication of erosion and moisture in the rocks. The hazards on this mountain range are mass wasting, radon, earthquakes, and flooding of Little Cottonwood Creek.
The state of Texas is the second largest state in the United States. Due to its location and size, it covers different geographical areas and climates. These areas support different ecosystems from deserts to coastal wetlands, with local wildlife varying with the environment. With such varied climates and yearly rainfall, it is easy to have crops growing in the east and little rainfall and an open rocky desert with cacti in the west. The geological history is also varied across the state leading to different mineral deposits by region. It is easy to see that Texas is a state with many unique areas that provide a wide variety of natural resources, native crops, and wildlife.
In recorded history, there have been 151 earthquakes in Nevada that were a magnitude of 3.5 or higher. As previously mentioned, the mountain ranges of Nevada are typically bound on one side or the other by a fault. There are quaternary faults that range in ages from less than 150 years to around 1.8 million years in existence. The property damage in Nevada from earthquakes was .2 million dollars between 1196 and 2014 based on information from department of energy for the state. As we studied in our textbook, earthquakes can by a number of things, such as shifting faults, or volcanic
California, and thus San Francisco, lies on the San Andres fault. The earthquake was caused when this fault suddenly shifted, with the rupture spreading for a total of 476 kilometres in northward and southward direction. “This fault is a continental transform fault, which forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate.” (1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack? USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California, Accessed September 3, 2006). 1 The distance of the fault is of about 1300 kilometres, which runs the length of California from Cape Mendocino in the north to the Salton Sea in the south. Geologists have estimated that the fault moved as quickly as 2.74 kilometres per second. The San Andreas Fault, the source of this disaster, lies ten miles or deeper, at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the Pacific and the North American. “The right-lateral strike-slip fault is characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western plate (Pacific plate) moves northward relative to the eastern plate (North American
On January 10, 1901, a huge geyser of oil exploded from a drilling site at Spindle top Hill, by an underground salt deposit located near Beaumont in Jefferson County, southeastern Texas. Reaching a height of more than 150 feet, the “gusher” was more powerful than any previously seen in the world. A booming oil industry soon grew up around the oil field at Spindle top, and many of the major oil companies in America.
Texas’s weather is hot and dry, and hot and humid this being mentioned previously. Texas weather is unpredictable. There might be sun with a little wind, or so much wind it causes visibility to drop down to zero percent. When the wind is higher than 20mph and the planting season is over, what is there to hold down the dirt? Just about almost nothing will hold down the dirt. Now the history of the southwest show us, that there was very little crops and it only that reasonlty become a bigger farming industry. Now when large gusts of wind came, dirt blew everywhere. Not as bad as it could have been, compared to our history in southwest. Like when the dust bowl happened and we had no rain in the area for many years. Just as what happens in the top half when it is dry. Nevertheless, the bottom half of Texas, is closer to water since the Texas coast is by the Gulf of Mexico. Which we all know, there are beaches by the coasts, and moister so they get more rain throughout the year, and they have less wind that can knock people over.
The extent to which tectonic processes represent a hazard depends upon when and where they are experienced (40)
The San Andreas Fault is one of the most widely studied faults in the world. Scientists use an array of methods in collecting data and providing analysis of fault characteristics both past and present. Presently there are many differing hypothesis and models used to describe crustal movements and deformation within the Pacific and North American plate boundary. Historical earthquakes along this fault have proven to be rather large and devastating. This is important since the San Andreas Fault runs along many highly populated areas throughout Northern and Southern California. Through further research and analysis of this fault system scientists hope to solve