[Geology2] Re: [California's Earthquake Forum] Palmdale Bulge Was a Mountain of Mystery

Fascinating! I've always wondered what the truth was about that "bulge," and now I know. Nice to know Kate's onboard; two words-Kate knows. :-)

Lin

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 2:35 AM, Kim Noyes <kimnoyes@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Scientists and amateurs — even a healer — went to the Antelope Valley to study the baffling rise in the Earth's crust. Some said it was an illusion caused by faulty equipment.

By Steve Harvey, Los Angeles Times

December 12, 2010

The Palmdale Bulge — it sounded like some sort of waistline problem afflicting middle-aged men.

But it referred to something even more ominous in the mid-1970s — the reported uplift of the Earth's crust by as much as 18 inches along the San Andreas fault in the Antelope Valley.

Scientists wondered if it was the harbinger of a giant earthquake. Or perhaps a volcano.

Southern Californians were uneasy in the aftermath of the 1971 Sylmar quake that killed 64.

Stories of West Coast disaster were also trendy in the popular arts, whether it was author Curt Gentry's temblor tale "The Last Days of the Late, Great State of California"; the motion picture "Earthquake" (goodbye, Capitol Records tower); or the earthquake song by the group Shango, who warbled, "Where can we go when there's no San Diego?"

And now there was this real-life land mass said to be rising ominously in Palmdale, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

Riding to the rescue were "more than 300 scientists, engineers and technicians" who would arm themselves with instruments and "swarm all over the Palmdale Bulge for three months ... to determine the exact contours and extent of this mysterious swelling," The Times reported in December 1977. The U.S. Geological Survey funded the $1.4-million project.

<SNIP>

View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1212-then-20101212,0,5818783,full.story

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