The San Andreas Fault

One of the most outstanding geological feautures in California, extending for over 650 miles from Point Arena, North of San Francisco, to south of San Corconio Pass. Between twenty and thirty miles deep and more than a mile wide in some locations. The faulted sandstone and shale, contorted and sheared may be seen by looking northward from this point, where the Antelope Valley Freeway cuts through the upthrusted ridge to the north. This fault is responisble for two of the greatest earthquakes in California history. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1957 Fort Tejon earthquake. The giant shear was named in 1892 by the noted geologist, Andrew Lawson.