Hayward Fault Zone

USGS map showing faults that span the Pacific–North America plate boundary.

The Hayward Fault Zone is a right-lateral strike-slip geologic fault zone capable of generating destructive earthquakes. The fault was first named in the Lawson Report of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake in recognition of its involvement in the earthquake of 1868.[1] This fault is about 119 km (74 mi) long,[2] situated mainly along the western base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It runs through densely populated areas, including Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Castro Valley, Hayward, Union City, Fremont, and San Jose.

The Hayward Fault is parallel to the San Andreas Fault, which lies offshore and through the San Francisco Peninsula. To the east of the Hayward Fault lies the Calaveras Fault. In 2007, the Hayward Fault was discovered to have merged with the Calaveras Fault east of San Jose at a depth of 6.4 kilometers (4.0 mi), with the potential of creating earthquakes much larger than previously anticipated. Some geologists have suggested that the Southern Calaveras should be renamed as the Southern Hayward.[3]

North of San Pablo Bay is the Rodgers Creek Fault, which was shown in 2016 to be linked with the Hayward Fault under San Pablo Bay to form a combined Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault that is 190 kilometers (120 mi) long, stretching from north of Healdsburg through Santa Rosa down to Alum Rock in San Jose.[4] Another fault further north, the Maacama Fault, is also considered to be part of the "Hayward Fault subsystem".[5][6]

While the San Andreas Fault is the principal transform boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate, the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault takes up its share of the overall displacement of the two plates.

  1. ^ The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, Andrew C. Lawson, 1908, p.18
  2. ^ "Hayward Fault Fact Sheet". California Geological Survey. October 7, 2008. Retrieved 2011-04-18.
  3. ^ Sevrens Lyons, Julie (December 11, 2007). "Major quake on Hayward fault more likely, scientists say". The Mercury News.
  4. ^ Watt, Janet; et al. (19 October 2016). "Missing link between the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults". Science Advances. 2 (e1601441): e1601441. Bibcode:2016SciA....2E1441W. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1601441. PMC 5072180. PMID 27774514.
  5. ^ "North-of-the-Delta Offstream Storage Investigation (draft)" (PDF). United States Bureau of Reclamation. September 2008. p. 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  6. ^ "Paleoseismic Investigation of the Maacama Fault at the Haehl Creek Site, Willits, California".