Fieldlabpart2
- 1. GEOLOGY 1 Traci Renwick Part II
- 2. - A fault is a planar fracture in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. - Although I did not get the chance to visit the fault, I am still going to report about the closest fault to Coalinga; which would be the San Andreas fault. The San Andreas Fault is a strike-slip fault that runs about 810 miles through California. It was discovered and named by a geology professor at UC Berkeley in 1895. The rate of slippage averages approximately 33 to 37 millimeters (1.3 to 1.5 in) annually across the fault. Projected motion indicates that the landmass west of the San Andreas Fault, including Los Angeles, will eventually slide past San Francisco, then continue northwestward toward the Aleutian Trench, over a period of perhaps twenty million years.
- 3. BUILDING WEATHERING This is a bridge in Coalinga, located on Cody street. This is where I collected my rocks from. Buildings (bridges) made of any stone, brick or concrete are susceptible to the same weathering agents as any exposed rock surface. Some stonework can be badly damaged by natural weathering processes. You an see the chemical weathering line right above the rocks on the bottom half of the wall, this shows the erosion that occurred when the rock and water pressure was greater.
- 4. Although there was not a picture of mechanical weathering that I was able to get, there was evidence of biological weathering. The bridge had areas of rocks that had moss covering them. The moss usually grows on essentially bare rock surfaces. This made the open space a great candidate for moss.
- 5. This mass wasting could be identified as SLUMP. This type of mass wasting takes years of gradual movement to be able to have an effect on a slump. A reason for this slump could be the climate, or it could also work off of the vibrations coming from the drilling of oil. This picture was taken at the bridge on Cody street in Coalinga.
- 6. CONTINENTAL: Alluvium. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel. When you are walking around the bridge, you can see the large particles of sand. It is said that Coalinga was once covered by water, which would leave the sediments to make up a continental environment. Most alluvium is quite young, and is often referred to as “cover” because they cover the bedrock.
- 7. Photo Credit: http://rateitcoalinga.com A practical use of geology in Coalinga is the oil pumps. Much of Coalinga’s prosperity is based on top of it’s oil pumps and coal mining. Drillers have found up to four oil pools in the Coalinga field. The oil field has about 58,000,000 barrels left, which is less then 6% of the original capacity of 912 million barrels. Although the field is close to exhaustion, it is still being used for wealth in Coalinga.