Parkfield is placed at 35.899N, Great hundred.431W¹. Its elevation is 1,530 feet.

A town itself is in the central coastal zero in Central California. Mining utilized to become a prosperous activity in that community, however a mines were exhausted beneath economic recovery levels & the industry moved elsewhere. Now, these come the settlement of astir 900 humans world health organization are mostly ranchers & farmers or even merchandiser supporting these activities. There is a little tourism industry in a town that basis itself on the prospect of earthquakes (see the geology subdivision following). A Parkfield motto is, "Eat here when it happens, Sleep here when it happens."

Geology
Parkfield lies along a San Andreas Fault, one of the yearn & virtually all geologically active faults. Parkfield traditionally has an earthquake of 6 or even greater magnitude each Xxii years. Within 1985, a US Geological Survey predicted that there would be the major earthquake around that community in 1993, however there is no such earthquake come until September 28, 2004 once the magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck at 10:15 am Pacific Daylight Time. When the earthquake was eleven years delinquent it lends a few credence to the folk saying "a watched pot never boils". A extra period did offer a chance to add improvements around instrumentation when a technology was farther developed.

Parkfield is the virtually all closely discovered earthquake zone in the globe. Man of science measure a straaround in rocks, heat flow, & geomagnetism constantly around Parkfield. A observation of a San Andreas fault inside Parkfield may hopefully assist man of science realize earthquakes & peradventure a bit of day predict major earthquakes along the San Andreas fault & through the world.

Since 1985, the United States Geological Survey has been working on the plan called "The Parkfield Experiment", an extended-semipermanent scientific research on the San Andreas fault. "The experiment's purpose is to better understand the physics of earthquakes - what actually happens on the fault and in the surrounding region before, during and after an earthquake."

Around 2004, function began upright northward of Parkfield on the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). the goal of SAFOD is to drill a hole about Deuce.Little phoebe miles (Quaternion kilometers) into a Globe's crust & into a San Andreas Fault. An array of detector is installed to capture & record earthquakes that happen touching this vicinity. This is potential to become completed midyear 2005. It is placed at a source of many microquakes that have a magnitude of as much as Single.Cypher.