This is a physical model that approximately demonstrates the breakup and reorganization of southern California and Baja California during the establishment of the San Andreas fault system. The prototype of this model was first created for a student exercise in the "Jason XIV: Shore to Sea" project in the Santa Barbara Channel in 2003.

The download package includes all the materials usually included in a teachers' kit, available by request from Atwater. It includes a description of the geological history and possible classroom activities, a large colored model to be cut up and constructed (in the kit, this model has been laminated and constructed for you) and a figure showing the geological steps that are being depicted by the model. Also included, for a possible in-class student project are black and white xeroxable page-sized versions of the model, shaded or paint-by-number, with construction instructions.

For best results, the colored model sheets (A-2) should be printed on a large area color plotter (11"x14") and laminated.

Download: Southern Calif Model package (19 MB)

Please contact me with any questions and/or with any suggestions for how I can make these materials more useful to educators: atwater@geol.ucsb.edu