An ode to the Hayward Fault
To be sung to the tune of the Cal Drinking Song
UC Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science requires that all students take seven breadth requirement courses, including History, Biology, and Physical Science among others.
As an English major and Creative Writing minor, I waited two years to take the physical science breadth until I found a fun class to satisfy it: Earth and Planetary Science (EPS) C20, or Earthquakes in Your Backyard. UC Berkeley lies right next to the Hayward Fault, hence “in our backyard.”
Cracked concrete next to the stadium along the fault line
Several weeks into the class, we were asked to attend a field trip during which we walked around Berkeley’s campus to see the seismic retrofitting and reinforcements that were done on several buildings and the California Memorial Stadium. Our assignment was to write a “report” about the field trip, which could be in the form of an essay, a slideshow, a video, a poem, whatever.
I took it upon myself to write a song to the tune of UC Berkeley’s Cal Drinking Song, which is an essential part of any self-respecting Berkeley student’s repertoire. By the time you graduate, you should at least have some of this song memorized.
The actual lyrics to the drinking song may be found here.
I turned this assignment in about an hour ago. If I fail the class, we’ll all know why.
The Cal Earthquake Song
Oh we have a little fault called the Hayward
It’s a right-lateral strike slip type of place!
Oh we have a little fault called the Hayward
I bet you can even see it from space!
It all starts with Hearst Memorial Mining
A building retrofitted in 2002
They sandwiched layers of rubber and steel,
Which can move 28 inches (unreal!)
And dug a moat to stabilize it too.
For California, for California
The hills send back the cry, we’re out to do or die
For California, for California
We’ll be ready for the quake and know the reason why
(Thanks Prof!)
And next we have a pipe
extending 1000 feet into the ground
The pride and joy of Berkeley seismology
Predicts seismic creep that’s all around!
Earthquakes! (tra la la)
Quakes! (tra la la)
Quakes on Hayward fault have happened long before
The football stadium was retrofitted in the last years four!
50,000 yards of concrete are as stable as can be,
break the stadium into separate pieces
on Teflon sliders bisectionally
And the press box too
Is separated through and through
With flexible pipelines in case a fire must be subdued!
There’s the K section creep and the W section creep
Whose seats have aluminum garters for the sliiiiiding!
Sing glorious, victorious
Seismic retrofitting will save so many more of us!
Sing glory to the fault that made hills for Strawberry creek
So that its water flows all year round (damn clear!)
Cheers to the offset stream channel
That made Hamilton Gulch!
The Fault-zoning act, moved small schools back
And Clark Kerr’s rooms were retrofitted too…
Dwight Way’s sidewalks (ba-da-da-da)
Are swaying slightly to the right
As aseismic creep (ba-da-da-da) moves earth
More, more, more till the earthquake strikes!
Go bears!
The stadium is built in several parts, which you can see separating vertically to the right of the archway
Offset sidewalk at the top of Dwight Way