To the average pedestrian, it was just a curb, but to geologists, it was a snapshot of the earth’s shifting tectonic plates. However, to the town of Hayward, it was a problem that needed to be fixed. The city fixing the crooked curb stunned scientists, who said a wonderful curbside laboratory for studying earthquakes had been destroyed. That’s because the fault that broke the curb — the Hayward fault — is one of the major and most important faults in the San Francisco Bay area. In the 1950s, the curb was built across the fault, and the fault has been creeping ever since, moving about 4 millimeters a year. The fault broke through the curb and started pushing it out, and over the years it has moved the curb 8 inches. Now the curb is gone, making way for a wheelchair-accessible ramp. Meanwhile, geologists are mourning the loss of an icon. Geologists say it would have been nice if the city could have let them know ahead of time so they could have pleaded their case. “Maybe what we need to do in the future is give them a list of places that really shouldn’t be touched if they don’t have to be,” said David Schwartz of the U.S. Geological Survey, who visited the curb regularly for 30 years.
