The Fault from San Benito River Valley

This field south of Hollister is part of the former bed of prehistoric San Benito Lake, filled with fine sediment during Pleistocene time and now part of the San Benito River valley. The Cienega Valley is the notch in the Gabilan Range from which the San Andreas fault emerges. Near here Cienega Road joins state route 25, which runs about 40 kilometers further southeast along the wide, multistranded fault trace.