Rockin' and Rolling Landscape

The Garlock Fault, the second largest in California, applies monumental pressure on the largest fault in California, the San Andreas, causing it to bulge towards the west in what geologists call the “ Big Bend.” The Big Bend gives rise to the Transverse Ranges of southern California by jamming rocks together that have no place else to go except up.

Tejon Ranch straddles a highly active tectonic plate and earthquake fault zone. The massive Centennial housing development proposed for the southern part of Tejon lies along the mother of all fault lines in California—the San Andreas Fault. Angling into the San Andreas Fault and giving form to the Tehachapi Mountains is the second largest earthquake fault in California, the Garlock Fault. Another large development, Tejon Mountain Village, is proposed directly adjacent to the convergence point of these two huge faults.

Given the political fallout from all of the unwise development decisions along the Gulf Coast—decisions known to have worsened the effects of Hurricane Katrina—it’s a wonder that we’re having to make a case at all for preservation. These major active faults provide educational and scientific opportunities to increase our knowledge of plate tectonics and the movements of Earth’s crusts. Clearly, they are not the places to construct large new cities!

More Information on these faults:

United States Geological Survey’s The San Andreas Fault System, California