Soda Lake, covering 3,000 acres, is one of the state's largest undisturbed alkali wetlands and provides important habitat for migratory birds including Black-necked stilts, Avocets, Killdeer, and occasionally White Pelican. In the late 1800s, the lakebed was mined for significant mineral content in the black mud beneath the salt crust. Because the lake is self-contained and has no outlet, its water evaporates in summer, leaving salts that form a glistening expanse. Of these salts, 9% is table salt, another 9% is miscellaneous salts, and 82% is sodium sulfate, which is useful for preserving meats, cattle salt licks, and making detergent, soap, and glass. In 1908, the Carrisa Chemical Company built a processing plant here that could recover 600 tons of sodium sulfate each month, and after processing the salts were sacked and hauled about 35 miles to McKittrick for distribution. The San Andreas Fault, more than 625 miles long, crosses the Carrizo from north to south near the base of the Temblor Range and marks the boundary between the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Pacific Plate moves northwest at an average of 3-5 cm/yr, but in the Carrizo pressure builds until it is released in a large earthquake. The last major earthquake in this region was the Fort Tejon earthquake in 1857, which moved the ground 30 feet horizontally and 3 feet vertically in a matter of seconds.