I’m not normally an earthquake chaser, but the 5.6 earthquake in rural central Mendocino County this morning, June 24, 2026, shook close to home and coincidentally occurred within a tectonic setting that I have been intensively researching for a few months now. It also happens to be the largest earthquake recorded within the Maacama Fracture … More Earthquake on the Maacama Fracture Zone
From our column in the Mendocino Voice, with links and references: The Maacama fault system and fracture zone lies at the heart of Mendocino County, defining the landscape of the central valleys, and framing the geography, ecosystems, industry, and culture of inland Mendocino. A sweeping and formidable tectonic corridor, this sister of the San Andreas … More The Mighty Maacama: Mendocino’s Tectonic Heart
Tectonic Geomorphology Southern California’s Transverse Ranges are composed of a series of geologic units of divergent age and origin. Together they are captured and transported to the northwest in an east-west trending rotation by the oblique grind, pull, and squeeze of the fractured and tempestuous boundary between the North American and Pacific Plates. The Transverse … More Living Landscapes: The Western Transverse Ranges
Geography The Point Arena Terrane is a tectonic unit of geologic formations and sedimentary landforms west of the San Andreas Fault on the northern California coast, and is traveling northwestward along the transform plate boundary. The Point Arena peninsula, headlands, and coastal slope are a series of tectonic marine terraces, steadily and rapidly uplifting from … More Living Landscapes: Point Arena’s Sedimentary Complex, Tectonic Geomorphology, and Biogeographic Setting
Situated at the southeastern edge of the Northern Coast Range, where subduction complex abuts the Great Valley Sequence, two outlying strands of the broad San Andreas fracture zone cut a striking and majestic tectonic landscape. The picture perfect Cordelia fault, and its more significant fractious neighbor, the Green Valley fault, sculpt plunging walls and scarps, … More Earthquake Country: The Cordelia and Green Valley Faults
Every April 18th I ponder the fateful events my great-great, and great grandparents endured that very early morning, and for months to follow. With toddler in tow, and possibly pregnant, my great grandparents fled their South of Market flat to cross the Bay to join family in Larkspur, Marin County in the north. Their home … More On the Eve of the Great Earthquake
Mendocino Triple Junction Parts 1 and 2: Tectonics, Evolution, and Structure Mother Earth has made it clear that it’s time to talk about the Mendocino Triple Junction. On December 5th, 2024 the most seismically active region in California had its largest earthquake in 20 years*: a magnitude 7.0 along the Mendocino Fracture Zone, approximately 35 … More Mendocino Triple Junction Tectonics
The Maacama fault forms linear northwest trending transtensional basins in central Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, which contain many of the major towns in these counties, including Hopland, Ukiah, and Willits. Tell-tale evidence of fault creep can be traced throughout the town of Willits along the northwest trending slice of the Maacama fault where it cuts … More Creepy Fault Creep on the Maacama, Halloween Edition
As an ode to my natal beach, which has recently and unfortunately made the news for being closed to public access indefinitely due to sewage contamination, I’m taking a look back at a happier time for this spot on the southern tip of the Point Reyes Peninsula, and the discovery of the lone specimen of … More Hometown Fossil: The Lone Six Million Year-Old Parabalaenoptera baulinensis
One of California’s most unique and rare wetland systems is found nested between vast, migrating dune lobes on the Mendocino Coast. The Inglenook Fen-Tenmile Dunes ecological reserve forms the northern portion of MacKerricher State Park, a few miles north of Fort Bragg, CA. Most fens in California are found in the Sierra Nevada, Klamath Mountains, … More Inglenook Fen: A Rare Coastal Wetland System
