Parkfield_Quakes

Parkfield, California -- Earthquake Country

Life guarantees a chance - not a fair shake." -- Anon.

Parkfield, CA is located directly on the San Andreas Fault.

It averages a large earthquake every twenty-two years or so...it's way past due...

Parkfield's Motto...

"Be Here When It Happens!"

UPDATE!! -- September 28, 2004

We just had a 6.0 quake in Parkfield about 45 min. ago!

(The epienter was very close to the James Dean Memorial in Cholame on Hwy. 46)

Here's what it looked like!

Click here!

Because the area has such regular large quakes and frequent smaller quakes, the United States Geological Survey has measuring devices strategically placed around the Valley in order to study the land and water to learn to predict earthquakes accurately.

Great, great, great grandpa settled in Parkfield in the 1800's and built his homestead right near the fault line. His home was used to house some of the computers and systems that the scientists used to watch and measure the movement of the fault.

Looking North up the San Andreas Fault.

Here are some pictures of the old homestead site and some of the US Geological Survey equipment that is scattered around the Valley to measure the movement of the Earth there...

At our last family reunion in Parkfield, we were given a tour by Richard, 
who works for the United States Geological Survey. 
In the photo above, he is standing on the Continental Plate 
and we are all standing on the Pacific Plate.

Richard shows us the fault and the cross hair/posts with the video equipment trained on them. These are used to chart how the fault moves during an earthquake, whether it be a jolt or a rolling motion, etc.

Another device used to watch the fault is a creep meter. Creep meters have taut wires inside them and they are buried in the ground. Measuring the stretching wires shows us when things are happening with a fault. Also, a hilltop laser beam is directed to points all the way around the rim of the Valley to measure movement there, as well.

Downtown Parkfield boasts,