The Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon Fault (as it's official name is called) is one of the major fault zones in Southern California. It runs from the southern base of the Santa Monica all the way through downtown San Diego before ending in the San Diego Bay. It runs about 120 miles through very densely populated regions including Century City, Inglewood (right next to Sofi Stadium and close to LAX), Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach (where it goes offshore). It doens't reappear onshore until La Jolla in San Diego and it runs through Old Town San Diego, runs right next to San Diego International Airport, and then goes into downtown San Diego before going into the San Diego Bay.
It is part of the larger San Andreas Fault system, which is a collection of active faults that help to accommodate the right-latteral strike slip plate motion between the Pacific and North American plates. What is really striking is that if you look at a map of the known oil fields in Southern California, some of them can be connected to make a near perfect line. Notice how the Newport-Inglewood fault matches up perfectly with several of the oild fields below.
This is becuase faults act as a natrual trap to oil as they rise from below. Fault traps collect oil which can then be easily extracted through drilling.
How is the oil formed?
Oil is formed from dead or decaying marine life. Over millions of years, the dead carbon rich material is compacted as sediment falls on top of it. When it is compacted, it become dense and begins to sink into the crust. As it sinks, the temperature rises as it gets ever so closer to the earth's mantel. The heat helps separate the dead material, turing carbon into hydrocarbon. If the temperature is high enough, it becomes natural gas which we use in our kitchen stoves and propane tanks. When the temperature rises, it makes the dead material less dense and therefore it rises. As it cools, it slows down and eventually gets trapped by bedrock. Usually this occurs a few miles below the surface, but because California, especially southern California has many fault zones, the crude oil can make its way up to the surface (for example the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles).
Crude oil is oil fresh out of the ground. It is sticky, black, and smells like tar. It is made of hydrocarbons that have originated from the accumulation of dead plankton on the sea floor. Oil straight out of the ground is useless to us, unless we refine it in a refinery. Both time and temperature are the main two factors that go into oil refining. Crude oil composition is highly variable depending on the exact conditions of which it formed. Therefore, refining it insures that its chemical composition is standardized with other oil refineries around the world and is exactly what is needed to power our automobiles (among other uses). This can be best explained in the diagram below.
Crude oil contains high amounts of water. Only about 10% of crude oil is actual usable for production, while the other 90% is water. Water is polar (due to hydrogen bonding). Polarity in molecules implies that the molecule has a slightly positive and slightly negative side and has to do with the location of the electrons which are negatively charged. Water is overall neutrally charged, but parts of the molecule are slightly negative and slightly positive. The del symbol (∂) means "partial", or in this case depicting the partially positive or partially negative side of the molecule. Notice in the diagram below where the electons are. Water cannot dissolve oil because the oil hydrocarbons are not polar. Because of this, crude oil and water are considered an emulsion, or a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible.
From GeoawareUSA4:
As oil wells age, the ratio of oil to water usually increases, especially if the water is reinjected into the formation to encourage more oil to migrate to the surface. All produced oil has at least some water in it that must be separated before it is refined. If the water is left in the oil, it turns to steam when heated in the refinery and upsets the distillation column.
More info about the price of oil per time
Here's a plot showing the price of a barrel of oil since the 1970s to current (2020s). 1 barrel of oil is 42 gallons. Nominal price is the actual price paid at the time of the transaction. This is essentially the "not adjusted for inflation" price. However, the real price is inflation adjusted. The real price is adjusted for 2023 inflation prices. Interestingly, oil prices reach their peak in 2008 (for obvious reasons), just surpassing $180 per barrel (inflation adjusted) or $140 (non-inflation adjusted), and is only slightly higher than what current prices are.
Works Cited
https://maps.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/fam/
https://www.baycitiesconstruction.com/blog/did-you-feel-it-magnitude-3.7-earthquake-rattles-los-angeles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington_Beach_Oil_Field
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport%E2%80%93Inglewood_Fault
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_trap
http://www.agiweb.org/education/energy/oil/
http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_spring2011.web.dir/kristine_odom/temp/10956/ftddrops/Downstream.html
https://www.planete-energies.com/en/media/article/why-crude-oil-needs-be-refined
https://socratic.org/questions/why-is-water-a-polar-molecule
TO LOG A FIND ON THIS CACHE YOU MUST ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS BELOW. YOU CAN CONTACT ME THROUGH MY EMAIL OR THE GEOCACHING MESSAGE CENTER TO SEND YOUR ANSWERS. ANY INCORRECT ANSWERS MAY RESULT IN A CLARIFICATION RESPONSE FROM ME.
1. "Newport-Inglewood Fault - Huntington Beach Oil" on the first line of your email AND list all geocaching names of your party so I can match your answers to them. If you all want to learn something, I would prefer each cacher send me individual emails in the spirt of earthcaching.
2. Take a photo of you (or your signature item if you don't want to show your face) with the oil rig in the background at the posted coordinates.
3. What visible natural topographic features indicate an active fault is nearby?
4. What makes this site an optimal location for an oil pump? Hint: think about your answer to question 5
5. Count the average pumps per minute AND what does this tell you about what's below the surface?
6. Using the number you got in the question above, estimate how much oil is being extracted per day from the pump. Assume that each stroke of the pump extracts 0.5 gallon and 10% of the emulsion is usable oil. Use this formula and plug in the data: (Answer from question 5 in pumps/minute) x (0.5 gal/pump x .1 usable crude gallons) x (60 minutes/hour) x (24 hour/day)
7. Using your answer from question 6, and using the price of oil graph above, approximately how much money is being generated by this single pump in a single day in (a) 1970, (b) 2008, and in (b) 2020 using the blue curve (2023 inflation adjusted). Note the graph shows the price of 1 barrel of oil which is equal to 42 gallons. Use this formula and plug in the data: (Answer from question 6 in usable oil per day in gallons) x (1/42 gallons) x (the price of a barrel from the chart).