👤 whose

Whose work first identified the San Andreas Fault as a major plate boundary?

Quick Answer

Andrew Lawson is the geologist most associated with the San Andreas Fault after the 1906 earthquake. Later plate tectonics explained it as a transform boundary.

The Full Story

Andrew C. Lawson led the scientific investigation of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and its rupture along the San Andreas Fault. His reports helped establish the fault as a major geologic structure in California. Later, plate tectonics reinterpreted it as a transform plate boundary where the Pacific and North American plates slide past one another. The fault remains one of the world’s most famous examples of active tectonics.

Key Facts

1.1906 earthquake investigation led by Lawson
2.San Andreas is a transform boundary
3.Pacific Plate moves past North American Plate

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"The fault that helped shape modern geology"

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