Question

California is geologically divided by the San Andreas Fault which is a boundary between the Pacific Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate. You may make the following assumptions: 1. San Francisco is located on the western edge of the North American plate. 2. Los Angeles is located on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate. 3. The fault-line is directed precisely southeast to northwest. 4. Relative to the North American plate the Pacific plate moves northwesterly at a rate of approximately 1 cm/year. Given the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is 560 km measured along the fault-line, determine the time required for the two cities to be at the same latitude due to tectonic plate motion. (State the result in years.)

          California is geologically divided by the San Andreas Fault which is a boundary between
the Pacific Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate. You may make the
following assumptions:

1. San Francisco is located on the western edge of the North American plate.
2. Los Angeles is located on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate.
3. The fault-line is directed precisely southeast to northwest.
4. Relative to the North American plate the Pacific plate moves northwesterly at a rate of
approximately 1 cm/year.

Given the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is 560 km measured along the
fault-line, determine the time required for the two cities to be at the same latitude due to
tectonic plate motion. (State the result in years.)

Show more…

California is geologically divided by the San Andreas Fault which is a boundary between
the Pacific Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate. You may make the
following assumptions:

1. San Francisco is located on the western edge of the North American plate.
2. Los Angeles is located on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate.
3. The fault-line is directed precisely southeast to northwest.
4. Relative to the North American plate the Pacific plate moves northwesterly at a rate of
approximately 1 cm/year.

Given the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is 560 km measured along the
fault-line, determine the time required for the two cities to be at the same latitude due to
tectonic plate motion. (State the result in years.)

Added by Reginald C.

University Physics with Modern Physics

Hugh D. Young 14th Edition

Instant Answer

Solved by Expert Adam Moon

05/24/2022

Step 1

1 kilometer is equal to 100,000 centimeters. So, 560 kilometers is equal to 56,000,000 centimeters. Show more…

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Transcript

00:03 Right.

00:04 So you have basically a speed equation type of scenario.

00:09 We were given a distance of 560 kilometers, and we were given the speed at one centimeter per year.

00:19 And then the time is what we don't know.

00:22 And that's what we're asked to solve for in years.

00:27 Well, this is going to take a long time.

00:30 So our numbers should be pretty big for a final measurement.

00:34 For a lot.

00:35 Basically, they're asking the question, when will san francisco and los angeles be neighbors, like right next to each other? it's going to take a lot of earthquakes for that to happen and probably a lot of damage to the two cities for them to actually be right next to each other.

00:54 And it's going to take a long time.

00:57 So let's see what we can do here.

00:59 We're going to use the speed equation.

01:01 The distance divided by the time is equal to the speed.

01:07 I'm going to rearrange that because what we really need to solve for is the time.

01:13 So if we rearrange that speed equation, we're going to get c divided by s.

01:27 Well, before i start plugging in things, i need to make sure that all of our measurements are in light terms.

01:33 Right now they're not.

01:34 So what i'm going to do is i'm going to change everything into centimeters because i got speed at one centimeter per year.

01:44 But i have this in kilometers.

01:50 So 560 kilometers has 1 ,000 meters in it.

01:59 Or 1 ,000 meters are in 1 kilometer is what i meant.

02:03 So i'm going to cancel out that.

02:05 So i'm doing something called dimensional analysis...

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