GPS Readings to Determine Earthquake Fault Movement

Big Bear, Ca July 15, 2011 8:00 am – Four research scientists visiting Big Bear this weekend won’t be seen in the Village or on the lake.  The two teams of geology students are in the Valley to measure earthquake fault movement.  The project headed by Cal State San Bernardino professor of geological sciences Sally McGill, is surveying benchmarks around the Inland Empire using high-precision global positioning equipment to record each location.  These GPS units can accurately measure within a few millimeters. The information recorded this weekend will be compared with other data collected since 2002 to monitor how fast each point is moving.  The two data collection sites in the Big Bear Valley are south of Erwin Lake and north of Fawnskin.  The geology students at the Erwin Lake site are Elizabeth Upton from Occidental College in Los Angeles and Joseph Ramos from Cal State San Bernardino.  Joseph will also be collecting GPS data for his senior research project while at the site.  The students at the Fawnskin location are summer interns Robert Mason from Pasadena City College and Ashley Grijalva from the University of Texas at El Paso.  On Monday, once the GPS information is collected, the students will return to Cal State San Bernardino.