KOLO TV Interview with Jim Faulds

Geologist Gets National Attention for Plate Tectonics Theory
By Ben Deach, KOLO TV, posted: Mon 4:00 PM, Sep 16, 2019, updated: Mon 4:02 PM, Sep 16, 2019

View the video and story here (also copied below):
https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/Geologist-gets-national-attention-for-plate-tectonics-theory–560520191.html

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) When you think of earthquakes on the west coast, the San Andreas Fault typically comes to mind, but in the future, that could change.

“There is really no disagreement that today the San Andreas Fault is the primary plate boundary,” said geologist Jim Faulds. “The question is what will happen in the future.”

Faulds is Nevada’s state geologist and director at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, and he has spent years looking into the impact that plate tectonics will have on our area.

“Some of the major faults in western Nevada could reorganize themselves into becoming the major plate boundary.”

Faulds says the course of 8 to 10 million years, plate movement will essentially result in the gulf of California extending all the way to northern Nevada, along a zone known as the Walker Lane, which runs along the land where you will currently find U.S. 395.

“You can see physical evidence in a number of locations,” he explained, adding that some of that evidence is near Pyramid Lake.

And while there it’s important to emphasize just how far in the future this all is, there are benefits that stem from it today.

“It puts us in a great situation for geothermal resources,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons we have a lot of geothermal activity in the region – which is a great source of low carbon footprint renewable energy.”

The theory has resulted in Faulds getting national attention. Wired Magazine did a story on him in April of 2019.

NBMG Research Featured in Wired Magazine

An article in WIRED magazine recently released describes cutting-edge research by Jim Faulds, Bill Hammond, and Rich Koehler (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology) on fault systems in the Walker Lane and how this region could one day become the primary boundary between the Pacific and North American plates.

Read the story here—or listen to the audio version (following the third paragraph in the full article):

Move Over, San Andreas: There’s an Ominous New Fault in Town

by Geoff Manaugh (WIRED, Science, 4-18-19, 6:00 AM)

https://www.wired.com/story/walker-lane-move-over-san-andreas-fault/?mbid=email_onsiteshare

“U.S. Route 395 is a geologic master class disguised as a road. It runs north from the arid outskirts of Los Angeles, carrying travelers up to Reno along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. On the way, they pass the black cinder cones of Coso Volcanic Field and the eroded scars of a mighty 19th-century earthquake near Lone Pine. In winter, drivers might see steam rising from Hot Creek, where water boils up from an active supervolcano deep underground. About an hour from the Nevada border, Mono Lake appears, with its bulbous and surreal mineral formations known as tufa towers. Even for someone with no particular interest in rocks, these are captivating, otherworldly sights. But for James Faulds, Nevada’s state geologist, they are something more—clues to a great tectonic mystery unfolding in the American West. If he’s right, all of this, from the wastes of the Mojave Desert to the night-lit casinos of Reno, will someday be beachfront property.” (Click on link above for complete story.)