And the southern end of the fault is a system of interwoven channels that drain rain from these mountains. Vegetation is very sparse. But there are smoke trees, choilla cactus and creosote. And the Bullion Mountains are beautiful. They have multicolored layers of volcanic rock that slope in different directions.
Some rocks are red, some green, some are brown.
It caused parts of the western side of the fault to lurch up to 17 feet to the north-northwest. The movement was nearly instantaneous. If you had been standing on the fault, you would have been thrown to the ground and would not have been able to get up until the shaking dissipated. The area where the ground shifted most was near the quake's epicenter, in the Bullion Mountains. But the most distinctive cracks and fissures developed at Lavic Lake, where parts of the earth's surface thrust upward, onto other sections of soil.