Hector Mine Earthquake Pictures
The ground ruptured more than 40 kilometers of the Mojave Desert, as seen in the middle of the image. This fault was mapped in 1966 but was thought to be inactive. Now it is named the Lavic Lake fault. All photos by Paul "Kip" Otis-Diehl, USMC.
In places, the forces on the fault pushed the ground up into hummocks like this. In others there was ground slumping. But mostly there was pure strike-slip motion, one side sliding smoothly past the other in a right-lateral sense. The fault trace continues to the right.
The dirt track at right was offset by several meters, as was the streak of gravel at left. In right-lateral motion, someone looking across the fault sees the other side move rightward. This is a miniature version of the motion carrying coastal California, which is on the Pacific crustal plate, past the rest of the United States, on the North American plate. Most of that motion takes place on the San Andreas fault, but much of it is spread out across a wide zone of the American West, including this part of the Mojave.
