I have just got back from a fantastic 10 day research trip to Southern California with two of my supervisors, where we collected the primary data I need for my thesis. The focus of my thesis is to understand the tectonic deformation created by the San Andreas Fault within the Coachella Valley of Southern California. Here an earthquake has not occurred in over 300 years and is long overdue!
My study area was located an hour outside of Los Angeles and here we stayed for 5 days, experiencing consistent blue skies and 28 degree heat, even though it is the middle of their Winter! The 5 days of fieldwork consisted of mapping my study area, digging 2m deep trenches to sample the surface geology and eating a lot of Mexican food! As it is their Winter, the sun would set about 4.30pm each day so thankfully we were able to have some free time in the evenings and visit Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. However, this meant we had to be out at the site by 7.30am with a 6.30am wake up call, ouch!
One problem I experienced out at my field site was accessibility to every surface I wanted to investigate within my study area. This was due to the large number of wind farms that have been built within the Coachella Valley over the last 10 years, which are all fenced and gated. I knew when organising the fieldwork proposal that this may be a problem and luckily when we actually arrived at the study area there were numerous dirt roads which drove through the wind farms, so thankfully we were able to investigate the majority of the area. However, due to dumping and drug use in one area two surfaces I would like to have sampled were completely fenced. I did get in contact with the manager of the wind farm in that area, nevertheless health and safety regulations meant we were unable to gain accessibility.
Overall the trip was a great success, with 9 trenches being dug and 85 samples posted back to the University. I will now begin to process theses samples in the cosmogenic isotope laboratory and attempt to calculate the age of each surface to investigate if there is any correlation between surfaces north and south of the fault line, which may indicate an earthquake rupture!
I have to say that there are much worse ways to start the year!