Hollister, California

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay


In the map above, the main strands of the San Andreas and Calaveras Faults are shown in light blue (San Andreas to the west). Faults are red, main roads purple, secondary roads green. The pressure ridge north of Hollister is in light green. Faults from Ludington and others, 2005.

The Calaveras Fault trace through Hollister, adapted from Dellinger (2006). The pressure ridge is shown in dark green at the very top of the map. Numbered state highways are purple. Everything of interest is between West and Powell Streets south of Highway 156, and along Locust Street to the north.

Approaching Hollister

Looking south from Highway 25 north of Hollister. The low ridge beyond the field is a pressure or squeezeup ridge along the Calaveras Fault.

All photos taken February 7, 2007.

A Nice Town Despite Its Faults

Above: Downtown Hollister

Left: The gaily decorated buildings with the bay windows are featured in a number of books on Victorian painted ladies.

Below: Mural on a side street

South Street

The active fault that cuts through Hollister is the Calaveras Fault. The San Andreas passes west of town and right past Mission San Juan Bautista. The newer southern section of Hollister was built up recently enough not to show significant fault creep but the older, northern section shows abundant evidence of faulting.
Left: Here on the south side of South Street, there's very little evidence of fault offset in the sidewalk or curb.

Below: On the older north side of the street, both the curb and sidewalk are significantly offset. In just about every case, the offsets are right-lateral.

Seventh Street

Looking east on the south side of the street, showing right lateral curb offset. The slope near the camera (levels off about at the fence) is probably a low fault scarp.
The street runs along the south side of Dunne Park, where a low scarp marks the fault trace.
Looking east on the north side of the street, showing right lateral curb and sidewalk offset.

Sixth Street

Looking west on the south side of the street, showing right lateral curb offset. The new sidewalk is not offset.
Looking south at Dunne Park. The low scarp in the center of the picture directly along the line of sight is the fault scarp. Seventh Street is on the far side of the park.
This painted lady is another of Hollister's Victorian attractions.
On the north side of the street (looking east here) is an offset curb, sidewalk, and retaining wall.
Curb and sidewalk offset and cracked street pavement.
Looking west at the curb offset.
The low dropoff beyond the truck is the fault scarp. There is a slight sag before the hump.
Looking north along the fault. Cracks in the pavement may be due to fault creep.
Deformed wall and offset sidewalk.

Fifth Street

Looking west on the south side of the street, showing right lateral curb offset.
Looking west on the south side of the street, showing right lateral sidewalk and fence line offset.
Looking west on the north side of the street, showing right lateral curb offset.
Above: Looking west on the north side of the street, showing sidewalk and fence deformation.. Below: the house has been deformed by fault creep. This is one time to be grateful that basements are not common in California.

Fourth Street (CA 156)

Views of offset curb and sidewalk on the south side of the street looking east.
North side of the street looking east at offset curb.

Below: Offsets in the retaining wall and sidewalk are subtle. there does appear to be a little vertical displacement (up toward the camera).

Locust Street

Locust Street runs north-south from Fourth Street and the fault slices along the street at a slight angle to the street itself. Here a slight dip in the curb and fracturing of the curb may be due to the fault.
The misaligned sections of retaining wall may (or may not) be due to fault creep.
It's hard to tell fault motion from normal pavement aging here, but the chain of en echelon cracks extending from lower right to the telephone pole at upper left is in the right location and sense for the fault. This is looking north along Locust Street.

Below: Looking west along Central Street at offset curbs and deformed fence and sidewalk.

At Vista Hill Park, Locust Street curves west around the base of the hill. This view is looking west along Locust.

Below: the pressure ridge in Vista Hill Park.

Garage at the corner of Locust and Fremont with deformed wall.
Looking east on Fremont Street. Note the offset in the central strip of the alley.

References

Dellinger, J., 2006; A walking tour of the Calaveras fault in Hollister, California, http://sepwww.stanford.edu/oldsep/joe/fault_images/hollister.html

Ludington, Steve, Moring, B.C., Miller, R.J., Flynn, Kathryn, Hopkins, M.J., Stone, Paul, Bedford, D.R., and Haxel, G.A., 2005, Preliminary integrated geologic map databases for the United States -- western states: California, Nevada, Arizona, and Washington: U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report OF-2005-1305, scale 1:500000. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1305/


Return to Historic Sites Index
Return to Virtual FieldTrips Index
Return to Professor Dutch's Home Page

Created 15 January 2007, Last Update 06 June 2020