The Lawson Adit is a horizontal mine tunnel, or adit, on the UC Berkeley campus, near the Hearst Mining Building, dug directly through the Hayward Fault. [1] Started in 1916, the adit is named after Andrew Lawson, one-time Dean of the College of Mining at UC Berkeley. [2]
The adit was dug under the direction of Frank H. Probert, who had just previously been appointed Professor of Mining. [3] It was dug primarily for instructional purposes, with secondary hopes that it would represent a new source of water for the campus. [1] [4] Much of the equipment to dig and use the tunnel was donated by the mining industry in the San Francisco Bay area. [4] Although an initial report said that it was to go 1,800 feet into the Berkeley Hills, [3] the actual construction resulted in a mine tunnel of about 200 feet.
Between 1919 and 1930 the adit was used to give mining and metallurgy students hands-on training, specifically to provide "sound, practical training in drilling, drifting, blasting, timbering, and mine surveying." [1] [4] This training included instruction in the use of dynamite as well as the extraction of precious metals [1] and practice and demonstration of rescuing techniques. [5]
In 1935, Berkeley engineering students celebrated the annual March 15 Engineers' Day by putting together "a museum of historical electrical equipment," holding a dance at the Hotel Claremont, and engaging in a "mine rescue" in the Lawson Adit next to the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. [6]
Around 1939 the adit was extended to around 900 feet so that it intersected the Hayward Fault and could be used for a direct study of the fault [1] by George Louderback, a seismologist at UC Berkeley, to help determine the safety of building a new women's dormitory, Stern Hall. Louderback's studies in the adit revealed that the Hayward Fault at this point is surrounded by a particularly unstable mélange of serpentine and other metamorphic rocks. [7] He suggested that Stern Hall be built approximately fifty feet away from its original planned location. [1] [4]
After 1939, much of the extended adit eventually collapsed, with most collapses around the point where the adit intersects the fault. Today the adit is only maintained to a length of about 260 feet, [1] [4] and is not in use due to safety reasons. [8]
Berkeley is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2020 census recorded a population of 124,321.
An adit is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins.
The College of Engineering, also known informally as Berkeley Engineering or CoE, is one of the fourteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. Established in 1931, the college is considered among the most prestigious engineering schools in the world, ranked third by U.S. News & World Report and with an undergraduate acceptance rate of 7.6%. Berkeley Engineering is particularly well known for producing many successful entrepreneurs; among its alumni are co-founders and CEOs of some of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, Boeing, Google, Intel, and Tesla.
The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is a graduate professional school on the campus of University of California, Berkeley. It is among the top graduate journalism schools in the United States, and is designed to produce journalists with a two-year Master of Journalism (MJ) degree. It also offers a summer minor in journalism to undergraduates and a journalism certificate option to non-UC Berkeley students.
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada, which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock.
California Memorial Stadium also known as FTX Field atCalifornia Memorial Stadium, and simply and commonly known as Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California. It is the home field for the University of California Golden Bears of the Pac-12 Conference. The venue opened in 1923 and currently seats around 63,000 fans for football. The playing field runs NW-SE, at an elevation of 410 feet above sea level. It has been named one of the top college football stadiums by various publications, and it was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 27, 2006.
Bowles Hall is a coed residential college at the University of California, Berkeley, known for its unique traditions, parties, and camaraderie. Designed by George W. Kelham, the building was the first residence hall on campus, dedicated in 1929, and was California's first state-owned residence hall. It was built in 1928 on a $350,000 grant by Mary McNear Bowles in memory of her husband, Cal alumnus and UC Regent Phillip E. Bowles. Mr. Bowles was said to have three loves: horses, horticulture and the University of California.
The Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California, Berkeley, is home to the university's Materials Science and Engineering Department, with research and teaching spaces for the subdisciplines of biomaterials; chemical and electrochemical materials; computational materials; electronic, magnetic, and optical materials; and structural materials. The Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as part of California Historical Landmark #946. It was designed by John Galen Howard, with the assistance of the UC Berkeley-educated architect Julia Morgan and the Dean of the College of Mines at that time, Samuel B. Christy. It was the first building on that campus designed by Howard. Construction began in 1902 as part of the Phoebe Hearst campus development plan. The building was dedicated to the memory of her husband George Hearst, who had been a successful miner.
The Rayrock Mine was a uranium producing venture in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located on the south side of Maryleer Lake and the north shore of Fault Lake, 169 kilometers northwest of Yellowknife and 74 kilometres northwest of Rae. Radioactive deposits were originally staked in 1948 and then restaked in 1950. American Yellowknife Mines Limited explored the site with detailed Geiger surveys and extensive trenching in the early 1950s. In 1954 exploration work included over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of surface diamond drilling, and the company was reorganized as Rayrock Mines Limited.
The Doe Memorial Library is the main library of the University of California, Berkeley Library System. The library is named after its benefactor, Charles Franklin Doe, who in 1904 bequeathed funds for its construction. It is located near the center of the Berkeley campus, facing Memorial Glade, and is adjacent to the Bancroft Library. In 1900, Emile Benard won an architectural competition for the design of the library, and the Neoclassical-style building was completed in 1911. The Doe Library building is the gateway to the underground Gardner (Main) Stacks, named in honor of David P. Gardner, the 15th President of the University of California.
The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces of gold during its lifetime. This is about 2,500 cubic feet (71 m3) or a volume of gold roughly equal to 18,677 US gallons.
Strawberry Creek is the principal watercourse running through the city of Berkeley, California. Two forks rise in the Berkeley Hills of the California Coast Ranges, and form a confluence at the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The creek then flows westward across the city to discharge into San Francisco Bay.
The campus of the University of California, Berkeley and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck, and their colleague Julia Morgan. Subsequent tenures as supervising architect held by George W. Kelham and Arthur Brown, Jr. saw the addition of several buildings in neoclassical and other revival styles, while the building boom after World War II introduced modernist buildings by architects such as Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, John Carl Warnecke, Gardner Dailey, Anshen & Allen, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Recent decades have seen additions including the postmodernist Haas School of Business by Charles Willard Moore, Soda Hall by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and the East Asian Library by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.
Andrew Cowper Lawson was a Scots-Canadian geologist who became professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the editor and co-author of the 1908 report on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which became known as the "Lawson Report". He was also the first person to identify and name the San Andreas Fault in 1895, and after the 1906 quake, the first to delineate the entire length of the San Andreas Fault which previously had been noted only in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also named the Franciscan Complex after the Franciscan Order of the Catholic church whose missions used conscripted Native American labor to mine limestone in these areas.
Stern Hall is an all-female residence hall at the University of California, Berkeley, constructed and operated by the University. It was built in 1942 on a $258,000 grant from Rosalie Meyer Stern, daughter of Marc Eugene Meyer and widow of Sigmund Stern, class of 1879. It is the sister hall to Bowles Hall, the all-male residence on campus. The Hall was first opened for 90 undergraduate women; currently it houses approximately 267. It is located at Hearst Avenue and Highland Place.
Royal Engineer tunnelling companies were specialist units of the Corps of Royal Engineers within the British Army, formed to dig attacking tunnels under enemy lines during the First World War.
The history of the University of California, Berkeley begins on October 13, 1849, with the adoption of the Constitution of California, which provided for the creation of a public university. On Charter Day, March 23, 1868, the signing of the Organic Act established the University of California, with the new institution inheriting the land and facilities of the private College of California and the federal funding eligibility of a public agricultural, mining, and mechanical arts college.
Etcheverry Hall is a building on the UC Berkeley campus that houses the departments of mechanical, industrial, and nuclear engineering of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. Etcheverry Hall is named after Bernard A. Etcheverry, professor of irrigation and drainage from 1915–51, who later served as chair of the Department of Irrigation and Drainage from 1923–51. Built in 1964, it is located on the north side of Hearst Avenue, across the street from the main campus.
The 171st Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers created by the British Army during World War I. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground work such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, the digging of subways, saps, cable trenches and underground chambers for signals and medical services.
The 179 Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers created by the British Army during World War I. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground work such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, the digging of subways, saps, cable trenches and underground chambers for signals and medical services. 179th Tunnelling Company is particularly known for its role at L'îlot de La Boisselle and for firing the Lochnagar mine during the Battle of the Somme 1916. The Lochnagar mine formed part of a series of 19 mines that were placed beneath the German lines on the British section of the Somme front to assist the start of the battle.
Coordinates: 37°52′30″N122°15′24″W / 37.87494°N 122.256673°W