Why is the Garlock Fault displaced only 18 miles by the San Andreas Fault? It's a Zipper!

[El Supremo]

SAN FRANCISCO — A new explanation for colliding faults could help explain mysterious fault lines that have mystified geologists for decades. The new explanation could explain everything from the quake-prone faults of Southern California to dynamic crust beneath the snow-capped peak of K2 in the Himalayas.

The theory is deceptively simple: When two faults collide, instead of one breaking past another, they may just merge, like a zipper zipping up, said John Platt, a geologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. [Photo Journal: The Gorgeous San Andreas Fault]

"It may solve some long-standing and intractable problems concerning the timing and displacement on faults," Platt said in the presentation.

(snip)

Based on traditional conceptions of faults, either the Garlock Fault should have cut through the San Andreas Fault and deactivated it, or vice versa. But the San Andreas Fault has about 150 miles (241 km) of slip between either side, meaning that volcanic rocks in Pinnacles National Park match those much farther south, in Los Angeles County. The Garlock Fault, by contrast, has 18 miles (30 km) of slip.

All at: http://news.yahoo.com/san-andreas-may-zipper-fault-165002126.html

This article lacks a map. So here is the best I could find.