It's all OUR Fault #2 EarthCache
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This is part of The Living Desert Geocache Series. The Living Desert is a wonderful place to learn more about the flora, fauna and geoscience of the world's as well as our local desert. It's situated within close proximity of the legendary San Andreas Fault.
The Living Desert is a great place to bring a family, go explore and spend the day. All caches in this series are accessible after entering the Park. Entry fee is required. If entering the hiking trails, please bring PLENTY of water, and cell phone. Watch for the usual desert critters, snakes, spiders and the like.
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory which describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere. It is vital for the existence of life on earth because of the role that it plays in the global cycle that maintains the balance of carbon between the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The theory builds on the older concepts of continental drift, developed during the first decades of the 20th century by Alfred Wegener, and seafloor spreading, developed in the 1960s.
The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates. In the case of Earth, there are currently seven to eight major (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. The lithospheric plates ride on the asthenosphere. These plates move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent, or collisional boundaries; divergent boundaries, also called spreading centers; and transform boundaries. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The lateral relative movement of the plates varies, though it is typically 0–100 mm annually.
Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has a higher strength and lower density than the underlying asthenosphere. Their movement is thought to be driven by the motion of hot material in the mantle. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection, which is transferred into tectonic plate motion through some combination of drag, downward suction at the subduction zones, and variations in topography and density of the crust that result in differences in gravitational forces. The relative importance of each of these factors is unclear.
To log this cache please email me the answers to the following questions that are found by visiting this cache location.
1) This fault lies at the border between what two tectonic plates?
2) What is the average movement of these two plates every year?
3) In arid locations vegetation reveals fault locations. Name the kind of vegetation that can be seen in three of the five telescopes located at this sight that gives away the location of our local fault line.
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