San Andreas Fault

Here it is, my attempt to recap a year's worth of volcanic events. By no means is this supposed to capture every event, but rather the highlight/lowlights and what most captivated me during 2009. I'll be announcing the winner of the 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year tomorrow. Waimangu Geothermal Valley in New Zealand, taken in January 2009 by Erik Klemetti. January The year started out with a trip to New Zealand (well, for me at least) and vistas of the Waimangu Valley, formed in the 1886 eruption of Tarawera on the North Island. We were also still thinking about the late 2008…
Image courtesy of the Southern California Earthquake Center I have to admit, I've only been perpherially following the earthquake swarm currently going on in Southern California, near the end of one of the strands of the San Andreas fault out below the Salton Sea (see the bottom of the map above). The "Bombay Beach" swarm (as I'll call it ... beats me what most people are calling it) is being closely monitored by the USGS. However, from what I had heard from a friend of mine with a more structure/tectonics background, looked like tectonic quakes with "beachball focal mechanism solutions" that…