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Dear little Mr. Billy Bob, that analysis is about as accurate as your statement that the water molecule was 10 times bigger than the CO2 molecule. See the staggered red line in the upper map, that designates rifting. Perhaps you should actually read some literature on the Baja. Geologically, it is a very interesting place, or actually, two places.
A slip-strike fault may have been the beginning of the rifting, but without the rifting, the Baja would have just slid north, like the land west of the San Andreas.
Perhaps you should have taken a Historical Geology class.
How Did the Gulf of California Form So Quickly Seafloor Spreading Ocean Rifting How Oceans Form Baja California Formation
Finally, strike-slip faulting (as happens perhaps most famously along the San Andreas Fault) is common in the region and likely to have played a major role in rupturing the Gulf of California.
"Strike-slip faults by nature are steep" — commonly near-vertical — "so they have a tendency to cut efficiently through the crust and into the mantle," which focuses the breaking along very narrow zones, Umhoefer explained.
Altogether, his study concluded, these assets combined to rift and rupture the Gulf of California at a rapid pace.
Rifting worldwide
Globally, these factors also account for stark differences between rifts at active continental margins and those in the middle of a continent, Umhoefer said.
Areas that are tectonically active before rifting begins — which usually lie at continental margins — rupture rapidly and form smaller seas, such as the Gulf of California, because they rift off small pieces of continent. Rifts that begin in the middle of a continent slowly rupture and form larger basins, as in the case of the formation of the Atlantic Ocean, because they tend to break off large chunks of continental crust.
"How do continents that have active tectonics, like western North America, respond to rifting versus a place that's been relatively quiet? That's a question the research community is trying to answer," Umhoefer said.
I got this......A slip-strike fault may have been the beginning of the rifting, but without the rifting, the Baja would have just slid north, like the land west of the San Andreas.
Perhaps you should have taken a Historical Geology class.
How Did the Gulf of California Form So Quickly Seafloor Spreading Ocean Rifting How Oceans Form Baja California Formation
Finally, strike-slip faulting (as happens perhaps most famously along the San Andreas Fault) is common in the region and likely to have played a major role in rupturing the Gulf of California.
"Strike-slip faults by nature are steep" — commonly near-vertical — "so they have a tendency to cut efficiently through the crust and into the mantle," which focuses the breaking along very narrow zones, Umhoefer explained.
Altogether, his study concluded, these assets combined to rift and rupture the Gulf of California at a rapid pace.
Rifting worldwide
Globally, these factors also account for stark differences between rifts at active continental margins and those in the middle of a continent, Umhoefer said.
Areas that are tectonically active before rifting begins — which usually lie at continental margins — rupture rapidly and form smaller seas, such as the Gulf of California, because they rift off small pieces of continent. Rifts that begin in the middle of a continent slowly rupture and form larger basins, as in the case of the formation of the Atlantic Ocean, because they tend to break off large chunks of continental crust.
"How do continents that have active tectonics, like western North America, respond to rifting versus a place that's been relatively quiet? That's a question the research community is trying to answer," Umhoefer said.
As with all tears in earths crust there is a trigger. And yes areas that have been rifted, they always calm as there is no tension left to cause quakes after the initial rip and settling.The Baja peninsula was indeed formed by a slip/strike which ended in a rift/tear. That area, being on the edge of the deformed craton is highly susceptible to further tearing.
But again, I was using minor, understandable, terms for those majority of people who read this forum. You on the other hand dont think.
I was using minor, understandable, terms for those majority of people who read this forum.
Small beans compared to what the Cascadia Subduction Zone will do when it let's go.I grew up in SoCal listening to radio and TV pronounce that "The Big One" is due anytime.
Now its just for slightly different real, made up or imagined reasons.
I'm not saying it won't happen but what's the point worrying about it. When it comes it'll be so huge you won't have a chance to escape from it.
Ten little ones will hardly relieve the strains that cause a big one. The Richter scale is a base 10 log scale, so the differance between a 5 and a 6 is about 32 times as much energy. between a 5 and a 7, about 1000 times as much energy.
So says a geologist at UC Santa Barbara. Why? Because a fault in the area is leaking helium, indicating it's far deeper than any knew.
Me? I'll stick with the Chumash Indian belief that the turtle supporting the world has been still too long and it's time for it to make a major move.
Read the article @ Helium is LEAKING from massive earthquake fault in LA Daily Mail Online
