Drunk on Seismology - Tectonic Event Imperial IPA

 

My next Drunk on Geology is for the Tectonic Event Imperial IPA by Great Basin Brewing Company, makers of the also geologically themed beer Ichthyosaur "Icky" IPA.

What is a "Tectonic Event"? Lets look at some of the definitions of the words to get a better feel for the usage of those terms.

Tectonics:

"A branch of geology dealing with the broad architecture of the outer part of the earth, that is, the major structural or deformational features and their relations, origin, and historical evolution."

Event:

"A non-committal term for any incident of probable tectonic significance that is suggested by geologic evidence but whose full implications are unknown. Seismic Event."

Seismic Event:

"An earthquake of a somewhat similar transient earth motion caused by an explosion."

Definitions courtesy of the Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd Ed. 

So clearly the usage of the term "Tectonic Event" is meant to illustrate an earthquake. Tectonic, specifically Plate Tectonics, is the study of the earth's crust as it is broken up into individual plates. These individual plates move around, slide past each other, move over and under each other, and pull away from each other. Where one plate come in contact with other plates, where these motions occur, this is where the "tectonic events" occur. This is the source of earthquakes, generally.

Plate Tectonic map of the earth. Image courtesy of the NPS. 

When looking at the plate boundaries in the map above and comparing them to the earthquake locations in the map below, you can see a strong similarity to the locations of these events. And in actuality, the locations of the earthquakes on maps, such as the one below, helped scientists to draw the plate boundaries on the one above. 

Map indicating the locations of earthquakes across the globe. Image courtesy of the NSF.

The plate boundaries are made up of faults. Faults are breaks, or fractures, in the the rocks and they don't just occur at plate boundaries, however the pressures that move the plates are more readily present at the plate boundaries. Earthquakes occur at these plate boundaries because as the plates move past each other the slippage isn't usually smooth.  They get stuck due to friction. However, the pressure that pushes the plates continues. So that pressure builds up over time. The longer the plates are not able to move past each other the more pressure builds up, until the friction holding the plates in place breaks and the plates have a sudden movement. This movement releases the pressure, and the energy, that had built up along the fault. The energy then radiates outwards from the fault slippage, producing the ground shaking known as an earthquake. It is this slippage that would be termed the "Tectonic Event".

Text from the side of the bottle:

"This West Coast-style IIPA features seismically bold flavors with epic momentum and magnitude. A delightfully clean malt profile gives way to powerful quakes of Columbus, Chinook, Citra, Centennial, and Amarillo hops."

One of the ways that seismologists record and study earthquakes are by studying the energy that is released during these tectonic events. This energy is recorded by a machine known as a seismograph, recording a sheet of squiggly lines known as a seismogram. 

An illustration of a seismogram

As the ground shakes, the seismograph records that shaking on a piece of paper (or digitally). Originally this was recorded by simply a pen that would remain free of the earth's motions while the paper would move around beneath it, creating these jagged lines that eventually smoothed out. This image of a seismograph is what is represented on the front of the bottle, surrounding the hops illustration. These graphs, combined with other seismograms from around the world, can be used to identify the exact location of the earthquake, how big the earthquake was (magnitude), and how much energy was released when the fault slipped. 

"Rock your palate to its core"

The reason that the Great Basin Brewing Company chose to honor the tectonic event as one of their logos is likely due to the very seismically active area that their brewery in Reno, Nevada sits within, the Great Basin. 

Map of the Great Basin, showing the north-south trending mountain ranges. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. 

The Great Basin is an area of the US that is experiencing expansion, kind of like a sponge that had been squeezed and then was let go. As the plate expands, the faults along the Great Basin periodically move because of the stresses placed on the plate due to this expansion. The expansion had produced the topography that can be seen in the image above. This area is covered with north-south trending mountain ranges, which all align with north-south trending fault lines. As the basin continues to expand, periodically these stresses from the expansion will produce earthquakes from the slippage along those faults all over the Great Basin region, including Reno, Nevada, which lies along the western edge of the basin.

Drunk on Seismology - Ram's Gate Vineyard

My next Drunk on Geology post is for the Ram's Gate Vineyard itself. When touring the vineyard I noticed a little sign denoting the "Faultline Vineyard", and while the winery doesn't have a geological themed name or label, I thought this would be a fun addition.

Upon further inspection it appears that the entire winery is located along the southernmost extent of the Rogers Creek Fault. The Rogers Creek Fault is the northern extension of the much better known Hayward Fault, one of the most active faults in California. The two faults connect beneath San Pablo Bay and it was unknown until recently if they were physically connected or just ran parallel to each other. The size of a potential earthquake is directly tied to the size of the fault. The larger the fault, the larger the potential earthquake. And with these two major faults being identified as two parts of the same fault, that increases the size of the potential earthquake along the Hayward-Rogers Fault Zone significantly (from a ~6.7 to a ~7.4). 

Fault map of the Ram's Gate Vineyard showing the Rogers Creek Fault Zone.

A 2018 study of the fault provided a recent, in-depth review of the fault with updated fault maps from San Pablo Bay up through Healdsburg, part of the Sonoma Valley winery region. In the map above you can see the fault trace running right through the center of the Faultline Vineyard, which is located to the east of the main tasting room building. 

Here is a shot towards the west, facing the main tasting room building along the main path of the Faultline Vineyard. In this photo the fault trace above is located to the right of the photo. The Rogers Creek Fault is an active fault with the most recent earthquake likely occurring sometime during the mid 1700's and has a recurrence interval between 131 and 370 years.

Here is a photo looking across the fault towards the north, which would be located approximately midway down the middle of the photo running from left to right across the vineyards. 

References
https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3410/sim3410_mapsheet.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228751159_The_most_recent_large_earthquake_on_the_Rodgers_Creek_fault_San_Francisco_Bay_area

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/10/e1601441

Drunk on Seismology - Liquefaction Red IPA

The next up in the Drunk on Geology series is Liquefaction Red IPA, the 2016 Geological Society of America specialty label by Left Hand Brewing. Left Hand Brewing was also responsible for the Field Assistant Ale specialty label from the 2013 GSA Annual Meeting. 

Like the Field Assistant Ale, this label is designed by Moxie Sozo and features a couple of geologists in a field vehicle that happened to get inundated within some liquefied sediment. A more complete view of the label can be seen below in the sticker that was given away at the meeting.

The back label

Liquefaction is the process where normally solid sediment can start acting like a liquid when shaken. This can cause multiple things to happen including shaking the ground like Jell-O, or even buildings getting swallowed up within the sediment, like quicksand. Normally, particles in the sediment, are tightly packed. However, during an earthquake, the sediments start to shake and vibrate. As they move about, the spacing between the sediment particles increases. As the spacing increases, the ability for the sediment to act like a liquid increases.

Drunk on Seismology - Aftershock

What better alcohol to follow up on the last entry's Earthquake with than this liqueur - After Shock.

After Shock is a product of the Jim Beam company with several varieties. The main one I am aware of (and the one pictured below) is the Hot and Cool Cinnamon version. It is a rather strong drink (80 Proof) with a strong cinnamon taste.

Drunk on Seismology - Earthquake Petite Sirah

And we flash back to my very first Drunk on Geology post that was over at my The Geology P.A.G.E. website. This was the wine that made me want to start devoting a decent chunk of my time just researching random wines, beers, and other spirits and finding out their geological connections.

The first in our Drunk on Seismology series is Earthquake Petite Sirah by Michael David Winery. This has been and is still one of my favorite geologically related wine bottle designs I have seen. I love the seismogram through the label and how the label is "torn" to highlight the pattern.

To give a little bit of science to this post. An Earthquake is:

Drunk on Seismology - The Logo

The next Drunk on Geology category I am ready to announce is:

Drunk on Seismology

Check out the logo below:

Here we have some seismogram lines, displaying a wine bottle and wine glass in the background.