Berkeley California 37°52'14.46"N 122°15'2.61"W

Today I traveled from my hometown in Los Angeles and drove up through California. The drive took me far too long, a full 8 hours, since there was an accident on the 580 that slowed me down considerably, added to the already long slog up the 405 out of Los Angeles. I spent the night in Oakland, before cruising up to UC Berkeley where I went to college.

The whole eastern part of town was covered with people as fraternities were swarming in preparation for the Cal-Stanford rivalry matchup. The stadium had just recently been redone, primarily in order to make the structure less prone to collapse in the event of an earthquake, as the Hayward fault, part of the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates runs lengthwise down the center of the field. Since the one of the plates is moving in the opposite direction as the other, the stadium had been offset 13 inches since its construction in 1923. These two plates rub against each other, and the since they rub against each other, since can send massive earthquakes through the ground. The principle transform boundary is located on the San Andreas fault, running just offshore of San Francisco and responsible for the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake as well as the 1906 Earthquake. However, the Hayward fault is capable of major earthquakes as well and a big earthquake would send the stadium crumbling to the ground. The game began, and tragically Cal lost, 21-3. Stanford got to keep the axe.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Berkeley_stadium_fault_creep_P1320489.jpg

This picture shows how the stadium suffered extensive fault creep prior to its renovation