Second Location: San Andreas Fault

Hi again, its Jerry Wu!

I'm on the West coast of California near San Francisco studying the infamous San Andreas Fault line. Before this, however, I was enjoying myself in the big city of San Francisco where I ate more food and learned how to surf. It feels good to be back in the United States!

http://jimcoda.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/san-francisco-skyline-and-alcatraz/

Well anyways, back to business. The San Andreas Fault line (39° 0'14.25"N 123°41'48.00"W) turned out to be an entirely different type of tectonic boundary! This boundary is neither a divergent or convergent boundary. Instead, it is known as a transform boundary. Whereas divergent boundaries consist of plates moving apart and convergent boundaries consist of plates smashing together, a transform boundary involves plates sliding against each other. Imagine the two sides of a road. On the right side, the cars are moving forward, and on the left, the cars are moving the other direction. In a transform boundary, the two plates are moving like the cars on the road. One plate is heading one direction, and the other is moving in the opposite direction. However, they are not moving apart. Instead they are moving side by side. This diagram ought to explain the differences of the boundaries clearly:

http://brittanyrutter.wikispaces.com/Transform+boundaries

The San Andreas Transform Fault line has been known to be the cause of many notable earthquakes in the past. This boundary also caused the famous San Francisco earthquake in 1906 that killed over 3000 people to occur. More recently in 2004, it caused another earthquake that had a magnitude of 6 to be felt throughout most of California. Although all of this information about transform boundaries and earthquakes is very intriguing, I still haven't found out anything about Jimmy's whereabouts! He must be at a divergent boundary. The problem is, I don't know where one would be! Using my basic knowledge of plate tectonics, I reasoned that the Himalayas were some sort of tectonic boundary. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that it is a boundary that Jimmy would go to!

Bye for now, Jerry Wu.