Floating Upheaval

This painting depicts the geological area called the Mendocino Triple Junction which is the point where the Gorda Plate, the Pacific Plate, and the North American Plate meet. This area is active tectonically, and the junction is the site of frequent earthquakes as well as active seafloor spreading. The bedrock in this area is mostly Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks derived before the San Andreas Fault propagated across the region north of San Francisco starting about 12 million years ago (Late Miocene). The painting depicts the beauty of these ancient formations.