Open-ended Q & A

A general thread for questions and topics unrelated to any particular post.

13 Responses to “Open-ended Q & A”

  1. Lesley Says:
    25 May 2012 at 8:38 pm

    Hi Andrew. I’ve enjoyed your blog for a while. Now I’m looking for a home to buy and find myself wondering if YOU would buy (or even rent) in Sheffield Village? It’s one of the areas our budget has led us to, but it scares me. And then I wonder if living ON the fault is so much worse than living, say, across the freeway from the fault.
    Thanks!
    Lesley

  2. Andrew Says:
    26 May 2012 at 7:33 pm

    Lesley, I’m not a practicing geologist and it would be illegal for me to advise you. I can only tell you that I live less than 2 kilometers from the fault, love where I am, and am not a homeowner. I can also tell you that I adore Sheffield Village. Every homesite has its own unique geologic setting, even within a single development.

    When the big one hits Oakland, we will all be in the same place.

  3. Lesley Says:
    26 May 2012 at 9:31 pm

    Thanks for the perspective, Andrew. We will probably still be renting in Alameda and get stuck on the island when the big one hits, anyway.

  4. Andrew Says:
    1 June 2012 at 5:36 pm

    The City of Fremont will show you around its segment of the Hayward fault in 90-minute walks on three Saturdays this summer. The first walk is next week. See more here.

    While I’m at it, I will be leading a two-hour walk for the Oakland Heritage Alliance on August 18 around the landscape (and rock specimens) of Middle Harbor Park. And on September 8 I’ll lead a walk around the Hayward fault and other attractions of Montclair for Oakland Urban Paths. Mark your calendars now.

  5. Asa Dotzler Says:
    5 August 2012 at 5:27 pm

    A friend of mine suggested you’d be the guy to talk to about identifying this http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastbaywilds/7284738780/in/photostream If you’ve got a minute and you could help out, I’m sure that Pete (Oakland native plant guy) would appreciate it and I’d love to learn the answer.

    [The concentric brown bands inside massive sandstone are common in coastal California. I understand that they mark the passage of petroleum from source beds below on their way toward the surface or an underground trap. They are spectacularly exposed along the Santa Cruz beach cliffs among other places. --Andrew]

  6. Andrew Says:
    10 August 2012 at 8:44 pm

    Next week—Saturday the 18th—I’ll be leading a walk for the Oakland Heritage Alliance down at Middle Harbor Park, 10 am to noon. The topic is the wonderful recycled landscape there, regarded as both an artistic and geotechnical achievement.

    More details at oaklandheritage.org.

  7. Jafafa Hots (@JafafaHots) Says:
    10 November 2012 at 10:37 pm

    Hi, my apologies if I ever asked this before, my memory is bad.
    I found this fossil in the railroad cut in Fernandez Park in Pinole. I realize that that is not Oakland, but thought you might know of the age of the rock there.
    I thought it was a samarra (maple tree “helicopter”) mainly because it has a “bump” without veins where the seed would be, but a friend’s friend who works at UC Berkeley in Paleontology (I think) thought that sounded misplaced. Maybe it’s a shell. Dunno the age.

    The original was sadly destroyed (so crumbly), and a planned field trip with him to the locality to search for others never materialized.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/jafafahots/3762366919/in/photostream/

    I’m still learning the geology here. The geology in my native upstate NY is much older and kinda simpler.

    [Yes, you posted it here last year.]

  8. Michael Greene Says:
    28 December 2012 at 9:21 am

    Hi Andrew,

    There may be a Cretaceous/Tertiary contact exposure near the San Leandro Reservoir. Do you know anything about it?

    -Michael Greene

  9. Andrew Says:
    28 December 2012 at 10:14 am

    Michael, the contact is mapped as a thrust fault, with the Cretaceous rocks pushed over the younger ones. Moreover, the Cretaceous rocks are of Campanian age while the Tertiary rocks are Miocene, so there’s an age gap of about 50 million years there.

    The nearest true K-T (Maastrichtian–Danian) contact I know of is down in the Panoche Hills.

  10. Andrew Says:
    19 January 2013 at 11:57 am

    I was reading about the Science Night at Claremont Middle School, which happened Thursday night (17 Jan). The Trib said, and Rockridge Patch confirms, that one of the events was an “Earth Science Dinner.” Can anyone tell me what was served?

  11. kim probst Says:
    17 June 2013 at 5:24 pm

    Is that Round Top on the left of your banner photo? I was there recently with a friend and wondered if it could be seen from SF. I saw that ’round top’ next to Mt. Diablo on the approach to the bay bridge and wondered if it was ‘the’ Round Top where Sibley Park is.

  12. Andrew Says:
    18 June 2013 at 10:56 am

    Yes, that’s Round Top.

  13. kim probst Says:
    19 June 2013 at 4:59 pm

    Thanks for the confirmation. I just saw a similar view today from the Legion of Honor in SF, but because of the angle, the buildings in the forefront are downtown SF rather than downtown Oakland. It’s pretty cool to be able to see the same landmarks from different places.

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