Tri-Valley, the med of California

We've been doing a little research on our new location. Our postal address is Dublin California, Zipcode 94568, but actually we're closer to Pleasanton. Both towns are part of the Tri-Valley, a triangle shaped valley in the East Bay of the San Franciso Bay Area, consisting of the Amador, Livermore and San Ramon valleys. We're blessed with a Mediterainean-like climate which in turn makes the valleys home to many working vineyards, most in the Livermore area. Other than the towns of Dublin and Pleasanton, Tri-Valley also has Danville, Livermore, San Ramon and the newly established gate-town of Blackhawk. We're about 30 miles east of San Francisco and we do know the way to San Jose!

Our apartment block is more or less in the centre of the Tri-Valley, right where the three valleys meet. The towns of Blackhawk, Danville and San Ramon are to our north, Dublin to our west, Pleasanton to the south and Livermore to the east. The Tri-Valley is surrounded by the Diablo mountain range, which in itself is part of the California Coast ranges, themselves part of the much larger Pacific Coast Range.

Don't ask about earthquakes! Oh you did! Right then. Everyone's heard of the San Andreas fault, which runs almost the length of California, and right through the Bay Area. The San Andreas Fault is the sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. It slices California in two from Cape Mendocino to the Mexican border. San Diego, Los Angeles and Big Sur are on the Pacific Plate. San Francisco, Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada are on the North American Plate. And despite San Francisco’s legendary 1906 earthquake, the San Andreas Fault does not go through the city. Look at a map and you'll find it runs pretty much down the west side of the Bay, and since we're way over on the East Bay, the other side of the East Bay Hills, you'd think we'd be OK. But you'd be wrong. You see, the San Andreas is just a cover for a whole fault system. In our local area there are more than 20 individual faults making up the San Andreas fault system, see the main ones in the diagram below.



The light blue fault is what everyone calls the San Andreas Fault, but our apartment lies almost slap bang at the top of the orange fault, the Calaveras Fault. Don't be too concerned however, since a major 'quake has not occurred on the Calaveras fault in recorded history, the last moderate tremble, mag 5.6, occurred near Alum rock, more or less 25 miles due south of us, on Oct 30th 2007.

In general, the sun shines, there is little or no cloud, and not much rain. Sunrise is never earlier than 5:30 (June) and no later than than 7:10 (Mar & October - daylight savings changeover), while sunset is between 5pm and 9pm. Average daily temperatures range from 8C in Dec and Jan to 24C in July. During the summer months we rarely have more than 2 days of rain, but this increases to an average 9 days/month in Dec and Jan.

Hopefully, that gives y'all an overview of our geography.

Until next time....

Pete & Lynda