Oakland Geology

I’ll be taking a tour of the new Caldecott Tunnel bore on Friday. This is the view of Route 24 from the ridge south of it, across from Hiller Highlands. Everything here is east of the Hayward fault.

On the right is uppermost Broadway, where a line of locals and advanced commuters chronically hope for a few seconds’ advantage by merging at the last second before the tunnel. I’ve decided that it’s faster to get in the left lane of 24 as soon as possible and stay there. Anyway, all the land from here to the far curve is underlain by rocks of the Great Valley Complex, of Late Cretaceous age. A fault separates it from the Sobrante Formation behind it, which is much younger. The lower part of the skyline ridge is Sobrante, but the high part is chert of the Claremont Shale. The tunnel penetrates both of those units, and I hope for a good look at it.

I was standing by the power line; you get to it by hiking down the road from the sports complex, on Broadway at the overcrossing, or by ducking around the gate at the top of Pali Court. The Great Valley here is a mix of fine-grained sedimentary rocks. Exposures are poor and the fabric is disrupted. Here’s an exposure on Pali Court.

And here’s a closeup from nearby.

It’s very shaly. The lenses of more siliceous stuff don’t add to its strength.

This entry was posted on 31 October 2012 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Oakland geology views, Oakland sandstone/shale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.