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The San Andreas Fault System, California

January 1, 1990

Maps of northern and southern California printed on flyleaf inside front cover and on adjacent pages show faults that have had displacement within the past 2 million years. Those that have had displacement within historical time are shown in red. Bands of red tint emphasize zones of historical displacement; bands of orange tint emphasize major faults that have had Quaternary displacement before historical time. Faults are dashed where uncertain, dotted where covered by sedimentary deposits, and queried when doubtful. Arrows indicate direction of relative movement; sawteeth on upper plate of thrust fault.

These maps are reproductions, in major part, of selected plates from the "Fault Map of California," published in 1975 by the California Division of Mines and Geology at a scale of 1:750,000; the State map was compiled and data interpreted by Charles W. Jennings. New data about faults, not shown on the 1975 edition, required modest revisions, primarily additions however, most of the map was left unchanged because the California Division of Mines and Geology is currently engaged in a major revision and update of the 1975 edition. Because of the reduced scale here, names of faults and places were redrafted or omitted. Faults added to the reduced map are not as precise as on the original State map, and the editor of this volume selected certain faults and omitted others. Principal regions for which new information was added are the region north of the San Francisco Bay area and the offshore regions.

Many people have contributed to the present map, but the editor is solely responsible for any errors and omissions. Among those contributing informally, but extensively, and the regions to which each contributed were G.A. Carver, onland region north of lat 40°N.; S.H. Clarke, offshore region north of Cape Mendocino; R.J. McLaughlin, onland region between lat 40°00' and 40°30' N. and long 123°30' and 124°30' W.; D.S. McCulloch offshore region between lat 35° and 40° N.; J.G. Vedder, offshore reglor south of lat 35° N.; and D.G. Herd, southern San Francisco Bay region. The Fault Evaluation Program of the California Division of Mines and Geology under the direction of E.W. Hart, provided much data about many faults. Unpublished material about the Bartlett Springs fault zone that was gathered by Geomatrix Consultants for the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was very useful. In addition, selected publications that provided invaluable data include Bortugno (1982), Herd (1977), Herd and Helley (1977), Pampeyan and others (1981), and Yerkes and others (1980). 

Publication Year 1990
Title The San Andreas Fault System, California
DOI 10.3133/pp1515
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Professional Paper
Series Number 1515
Index ID pp1515
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earthquake Hazards Program; Geologic Hazards Science Center; Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center