Shows a possible scenario for Pacific-North America plate tectonic development during the next 10 million years (stable North America held fixed). It assumes that the present motion on the San Andreas fault will become ever more impeded by growth of the "Big Bend" until an interior route, including deformations in the eastern California shear zone (including Owens, Panamint, and Death Valley) will consolidate, becoming the dominant plate boundary.

To view this movie, click on the images.

Download: Pacific-North America Future Movie (3 MB)

Drawn and animated by Tanya Atwater, just for the fun, using Photoshop and Morph.
Feel free to come back in ten million years to see what really happened.

Comments on this and all of the animations offered on this site are welcomed: atwater@geol.ucsb.edu