A Virtual Tour of the Hayward Fault including information viewable using the Google Earth
Written by USGS
09 March 2006
The U.S. Geological Survey has a new website that offers a virtual tour of the Hayward fault.
The virtual tour starts at the northern end of the Hayward fault, where it enters San Pablo Bay, and flies south along the fault to Fremont, showing along the way where the fault crosses freeways, runs through the University of California Berkeley football stadium, and intersects residential neighborhoods throughout the East Bay.
The virtual tour provides an unprecedented look at the Hayward fault, which last produced a damaging earthquake in October 1868. At the time, this Hayward fault earthquake was known as the great San Francisco earthquake, but it lost that title on April 18th, 1906, when the San Francisco earthquake struck along the San Andreas Fault.
"We are hoping that this tour will give the public, utilities, and land use managers an easy way to see how the Hayward fault transects the urban core of the East Bay," said Jim Lienkaemper, USGS geologist who made the virtual tour.
"Virtual tours are excellent ways to put geohazard information within the reach of many people," says Brian Quinn, spatial systems implementer for the City of Berkeley. "The context of individual structures-- residences, highway overpasses, tunnels, or even retaining walls--is where earth science meets engineering, and where hazard mitigation plans are transformed into actions and even policy. This really helps to raise local consciousness about what’s underfoot."
"Damaging earthquakes have occurred on the Hayward fault almost like clockwork", said Lienkaemper, who has studied the prehistory of earthquakes along it. "On average the Hayward fault generates a damaging earthquake every 150 years, and it has now been 137 years since the last one."
"The Hayward fault is the single most dangerous fault in the entire Bay Area," said Tom Brocher, a USGS seismologist, "because it is ready to pop and because nearly 2 million people live directly on top of it."
In a 2003 USGS report on earthquake hazards in the Bay Area, the Hayward fault and it’s northern continuation through Santa Rosa, the Rodgers Creek Fault, were assigned a 27 percent probability of producing a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake within the next 30 years, the highest probability in the entire Bay Area.
The new Hayward fault map and virtual tour are intended to serve as an educational tool. Official state Earthquake Fault Zone maps that govern construction setbacks and disclosure are produced by the California Geological Survey. This new mapping of the Hayward fault is different in some details from the current official state map. "This new map will help identify areas along the Hayward fault that may need re-evaluation of the Earthquake Fault Zones," said Chris Wills, a supervising geologist with the California Geological Survey.
David Schwartz, earthquake geologist with the USGS and co-chair for the 2003 study, noted that the probability of a large earthquake throughout the East Bay in the next 30 years is estimated at 46 percent. "While the Hayward fault is deservedly the center of attention," Schwartz said, "we can’t forget about the northern Calaveras fault (west of Highway 680), the Greenville fault just east of Livermore, the fault beneath Mt. Diablo, and the Concord fault. These are all active and capable of producing very strong shaking".
In addition to providing a virtual tour, the USGS website provides photos illustrating offset street curbs and downloadable page and poster sized displays of the fault. The website also has information on the locations and findings at sites where geologists have dug trenches across the fault to learn the history of damaging earthquakes that it has produced in the past 1700 years.
"We are working to release more USGS seismic hazard information for viewing in Google Earth, including real-time shaking intensity maps (ShakeMaps) for significant Bay area earthquakes as well as a virtual tour of the 1906 Earthquake to be released in April" said Mary Lou Zoback, Co-regional coordinator for USGS Northern California Earthquake Hazards Program and Chair of the Steering Committee of the 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance.
The USGS currently provides real-time earthquake information that is viewable using the Google Earth™ mapping service. Simply visit http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/catalogs/, scroll to the KML Files section, save the linked files to your computer and open them in the Google Earth™ mapping service to display recent earthquake locations.
To learn more about fault-related regulatory maps produced by the California Geological Survey, see http://gmw.consrv.ca.gov/shmp/. Interactive versions of California Geological Survey Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone Maps are available online at http://quake.abag.ca.gov/faults/.
Top iPhone related GIS and Geo Tech news stories from 2009 - At the end of the year its always interesting for us to look at some of the stats and results to identify trends and more important, to see what our readers think is hot! In the "news" category it seems that iPhone related geo tech items were extremely popular.
10 Awesome GIS and Mapping apps for the iPhone - I recall last year at the ESRI UC when an iPhone was on stage showing a prototype app (think ArcPad on iPhone). It was then that I realized the iPhone platform is going to be BIG in mapping and there's a ton of opportunity for developers.
Nokia Booklet 3G, unboxing video and image gallery... Those of you in the USA who pop in to BestBuy occasionally, you may have seen a stand showing off the Nokia Booklet 3G. A sleek, 3G enabled, SIM slot (AT&T) sporting netbook.
Interesting Tweeple - 10 Geo Technology & Geo-Social Women of Twitter - given the growing love for geospatial and location-aware technologies, I’ve decided to hype 10 women that I feel make a significant contribution to the Geo-Twittersphere. If you’d like to add 10 knowledgeable and useful Twitter contacts to your Geo following list I highly suggest the following: (in no particular order)
10 Geo Social Location-Aware Apps Making Waves... With Twitter's opening of their location API to developers there's going to be a ton of third party apps that will enable Twitter users to share location-aware information via their Twitter accounts.
Signs that indicate you may be a GeoGeek (aka. GeoNerd) and some suggested Geo blogs - Chances are good that if you are a Geo Geek then you already know it and likely refer to yourself as one. However, there’s many of you out there that may be on the fence and wondering… “am I a Geo Geek?" Read on for a comprehensive list of signs you might be a GeoGeek followed up by some suggested Geoblog reading.
Real-time GPS Mapping and GIS Solution Aids Efficient Disaster Management - Saturday, February 7, 2009 will forever be known as Black Saturday in the State of Victoria, Australia. In the midst of a 10-year drought, a record breaking heat wave descended upon the state, with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees C (110-120 deg F), breaking all-time record highs in some cities - Victoria Police Use Trimble Juno SC Handhelds to Speed Assessment of Damage Caused by Bush Fires.
10 Ways Your Tech Business Can Take Advantage of Twitter - Many companies and individuals are still asking themselves how can I use Twitter in my business? The following is a small sampling of some of the ways that your technology business can use Twitter to your advantage.
2010 ESRI Federal User Conference February 17-19, 2010, Washington D.C. Walter E. Washington Convention Center - The FedUC is the largest geospatial conference for federal agencies. Connect with other leaders, decision makers, and GIS professionals.
The International LiDAR Mapping Forum 2010 - Tenth Anniversary Event! ILMF 2010 will be held from March 3 - 5, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver at Colorado Convention Center.
The NAVTEQ 2010 Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony will be held during Ignite at O'Reilly Where 2.0. Be among the first to hear as NAVTEQ announces the winners for the North America region. Participants will be competing for a global prize pool of $10 million and growing by showcasing pre-commercial location-enabled apps using NAVTEQ map data & products. March 30, 2010, during Ignite Where, 7:30pm - 9:00pm, at the Marriott San Jose, CA
WHERE2.0 2010 - Now in its sixth year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. For 15% use Discount Code: whr10lbs
See more 
