Coast Ranges Part 5

[johnnash]

The East side of the San Andreas Fault [SAF] isn't the NA Craton moving SE, it's either allochthonous Terranes or uplifted Oceanic Terrain. The NA Craton is actually East of the .706 Line East of the Sierras. This makes the SAF on the East side independent of the NA Craton drift, and therefore, not directly influenced by its movement; indeed, both sides of the SAF including the Sierras are either part of the Pacific Plate and Oceanic Mantle Northwesterly direction or have previously overridden it and are being rafted NW at differing rates.

Strike-Slip faulting doesn't have to be two opposing directions, they can be two terranes moving in the same direction, but in differing velocities: Much like a freeway truck lane alongside an adjacent passenger car lane, with a 10-mph average difference between the two. When you're alongside the truck, it appears to be moving in reverse, but it's not. Both sides of the SAF and all blocks and Terranes West of the .706 Line are moving NW at differing velocities; their true directional influence is the Oceanic mantle they have overridden, generated by the relatively close East Pacific Rise [EPR, ] all moving NW.

The EPR and the Juan De Fuca [JDF] are still one in the same and are still connected together via the Oceanic mantle under the NA Continent. The California Terrane rafts are just on an eastern off-set of the old Pacific/Farallon Spreading Ridge moving in concert with the JDF; indeed, as NA drifts SW over the Oceanic Mantle, the more of it will rift and raft NW, like Baja. There are two fundamental players in the Western NA tectonic movement, the Alpha origin- EPR, and the Omega destination- Aleutian Trench.