El Cerrito - Faulted Landscape

Faults generate recognizable shapes in the landscape. One of these faulted landscape shapes (the technical term is "fault geomorphology", which literally means "fault Earth-shape") is a long, straight ridge or ridge-front called a "scarp". In El Cerrito, in Contra Costa County, the Hayward Fault has formed a scarp in the land on which the Mira Vista Golf Course has been built.

The Hayward Fault has formed this scarp in the fairway of the Mira Vista Golf Course. Note that there was a trench study going on when this photo was taken. Learn more about trench studies.

Many of the faulted landscape shapes, including scarps, are the result of the movement of the rocks on either side of the faults. As faults repeatedly rupture, the rocks near them pushed up, down, and sideways. Scarps are formed where rocks on one side of the fault have been left standing above the rocks on the other side of the fault.

Learn more about the Hayward Fault at the following sites:

Learn more about the fault study at the Mira Vista Golf Course.
(This is a scientific report that uses technical language extensively.)