Week 6 - Tracey Peterson - Salton Sea

For this week's travels, we visit Southern California's Salton Sea. This inland lake is notable for one main reason: its location on the San Andreas Fault. The geological compostion of the lake's immediate surrounding aren't terribly interesting.

Geologic Map, courtesy of ESRI

When one looks at a map of California fault activity, however, things get much more exciting:

Fault Activity Map, courtesy of ESRI

While the San Andreas fault runs directly through the northeast portion of the lake, the number of faults found in other parts of the lake and in the area immediately south and west of the Salton Sea are particularly interesting. Much of the fault activity is very old, dating back more than 700,000 years, but there is still significant fault activity, as recently as 1999 and fairly regularly in 1989, 1987, 1989, and 1968.

I am curious, however, if the lake has any effect on preserving the visible physical evidence from that ancient fault activity, and if the fault activity has anything to do with there being an inland, saltwater lake in the middle of far southern California (nearly 100 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean).