Tectonic Setting
The 1857 earthquake ruptured about 350 km of the southern part of the San Andreas Fault, the structure that accommodates most of the displacement along the transform boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Pacific Plate is moving north relative to the Sierra Nevada-Great Valley Block of the North American Plate at about 38 mm per year. The displacement rate along the various sections that ruptured is 34 mm per year along the Parkfield, Cholame, Carrizo and Big Bend sections and 27 and 29 mm per year along the Mojave north and Mojave south sections. Paleoseismic studies have found evidence for many prehistoric earthquakes in the last 3,000 years on this part of the San Andreas Fault.
Read more about this topic: 1857 Fort Tejon Earthquake
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“Only in the problem play is there any real drama, because drama is no mere setting up of the camera to nature: it is the presentation in parable of the conflict between Man’s will and his environment: in a word, of problem.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)