Nov 24 1986
From The Space Library
The results of a study conducted by Geologists Dr. Matthew Golombek and Dr. Laurie Brown suggested that the northwest Mojave Desert had shifted about 25 degrees clockwise because of periodic, violent earth-quakes some 16 to 20 million years ago. Golombek reported that "results of magnetic studies of volcanic rocks taken from 19 sites suggested that the movement was caused by shear (the Earth's tectonic plates sliding past or over one another) from the Pacific Plate sliding along the fault past the North American Plate." Magnetic minerals had once lined up parallel with the Earth's magnetic field to the North, but the study found minerals now pointing 25 degrees to the east, and it was determined that tectonic movement had rotated the rocks. (NASA Release 86-160; LA Times, Nov 30/86)
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