Highlights from the Second CERI Annual Field Trip to Southern California, May 15-19, 2023

Christodoulos Kyriakopoulos, Thomas H. Goebel, Navin Thapa, Zohreh Abbasi, Alamgir Hosain, Ariful Islam, Khadija Nadimi, Sadia Rinti, Kaushik Sarker, & Hadi Shali

Published September 10, 2023, SCEC Contribution #13240, 2023 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #217 (PDF)

We present a photographic diary of the sites visited during a five-day (May 15-19, 2023) field trip to Southern California organized by the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI). The field trip's first stop was inside the Pushawalla Palms Oasis, located at the northern end of the Coachella Valley. The students had the opportunity to explore the oasis and discuss how subsurface water rises to the surface along the fault zone. On Monday morning, the group started its trip at Bombay Beach (east shore of the Salton Sea), the commonly accepted Southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF) terminus. Later the same morning, the group located and explored the Salt Creek paleoseismologic trench intersecting the SSAF. After exploring the trench, we moved to the "heart" of the geothermal area at the southeast end of the Salton Sea. We first visited the Red Hill rhyolitic domes and later observed an array of mud volcanoes at the intersection of Davis and Schrimpf roads. On the second day, the group hiked along the Pushawalla Palms trail loop to observe the spectacular SSAF offset (Mission Creek strand) near the Pushwalla Canyon. Later the same day, the group returned to the Coachella Valley and explored the geologic formations of the Mecca hills inside Box Canyon. At the second day's conclusion, the group used the Palm Springs aerial tramway to "climb" and cool off at the top of Mt. San Jacinto. The panoramic view of the Coachella Valley allowed the students to observe the Mission Creek and Banning strands from a different and more comprehensive perspective and their alignment with the Willis and Pushawala palms. On the third day, the group traveled along the San Bernardino strand of the SAF with stops at and a guided tour of Badger Canyon and Plunge Creek. At the end of the third day, we visited the impressive Martinez Mountain rockslide at the western edge of the Coachella Valley. On the fourth day, the group moved to the SSAF Mojave segment to experience by "hand" how highly energetic SSAF events can generate mechanically pulverized plutonic and metamorphic rocks. Following the pulverized rocks, the group hiked around the area of the Punchbowl fault geologic site, explored the Pallet Creek paleoseismological site, and concluded the day with a visit to the sag pond at Lost Lake inside the Cajon Pass. On the fifth and final day of the trip, the group visited the compressional and extensional features along the Elsinore fault zone.

Key Words
Field Trip, SSAF, SOCAL, Students, Geology

Citation
Kyriakopoulos, C., Goebel, T. H., Thapa, N., Abbasi, Z., Hosain, A., Islam, A., Nadimi, K., Rinti, S., Sarker, K., & Shali, H. (2023, 09). Highlights from the Second CERI Annual Field Trip to Southern California, May 15-19, 2023. Poster Presentation at 2023 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Communication, Education, and Outreach (CEO)