Project Description

The fault-creep-monitoring project at San Francisco State University (SFSU) was created by Jon Galehouse in 1979, and has been funded from its beginning by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). Since 1979, the project has produced an invaluable and unique data set (e.g., Galehouse, 2002; Galehouse and Lienkaemper, 2003) and has provided reliable part-time research assistantships for more than two dozen SFSU students. We continue to monitor creep at over 30 measurement sites along active strike-slip faults in the San Francisco Bay region, including several sites in northern California on the San Andreas, Rodgers Creek, and Maacama faults. Following Galehouse's procedures, we typically make theodolite measurements at each site every two to three months, depending on whether or not the sites show a history of creep. On the Hayward fault, we also make annual measurements at 20 sites (e.g., Lienkaemper et al., 2001), in addition to our 10 regular measurement sites on the fault. If you have questions about the project, please contact: kgrove@sfsu.edu or caskey@sfsu.edu

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by numerous U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Grants since the project was created by Jon Galehouse in 1979. The project is currently funded by USGS National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) Assistance Award 03HQGR0080. The accomplishments of this project would not be possible without the involvement of the many student research assistants who have worked on the project over the years (see Project Personnel page). The views and conclusions contained on these web pages are those of the Principal Investigators and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.

Selected References

Galehouse, J.S. (1990). Effect of the Loma Prieta earthquake on surface slip along the Calaveras fault in the Hollister area: Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, p. 1219-1222.

Galehouse, J.S. (2002). Data from theodolite measurements of creep rates on San Francisco Bay region faults, California: 1979-2001: U.S. Geol. Surv. Open-File Report 02-225, 94 pp. (http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-225/).

Galehouse, J.S., and Lienkaemper, J.J. (2003) Inferences drawn from two decades of alinement array measurements of creep on faults in the San Francisco Bay region, Bull. Seis. Soc. Am., 93 (6), p. 2415-2433.

Lienkaemper, J.J. and Galehouse, J.S (1997). Revised long-term creep rates on the Hayward fault, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, California, U.S. Geol. Surv. Open-File Report 97-690, 18 pp. (http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/pubs/ofr/ofr97690).

Lienkaemper, J.J., Galehouse, J.S., and Simpson, R.W. (1997). Creep response of the Hayward fault to stress changes caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake: Science, 276, p. 2014-2016.

Lienkaemper, J.J., Galehouse, J.S., and Simpson, R.W. (2001). Long-term monitoring of creep rate along the Hayward fault and evidence for a lasting creep response to 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake: Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, p. 2265-2268.

Back to Creep Homepage

SFSU Department of Geosciences Homepage