Community | August 16, 2009 | 7 comments

New data: Mega-quake could strike near Seattle

source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/73757.html

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Using sophisticated seismometers and GPS devices, scientists have been able to track minute movements along two massive tectonic plates colliding 25 miles or so underneath Washington state's Puget Sound basin. Their early findings suggest that a mega-earthquake could strike closer to the Seattle-Tacoma area, home to some 3.6 million people, than was thought earlier.

The deep tremors, which humans can't feel, occur routinely every 15 months or so and can continue for more than two weeks before they die back to undetectable levels.

The instruments are detecting an inch or two of movement — known as "episodic tremor and slip" — as the Juan de Fuca plate grinds and sinks beneath the North American plate. Closer to the surface, the two plates are locked together. When they snap, scientists say, it could produce a massive 9.0 or greater earthquake and a tsunami.

By comparison, the largest earthquake ever recorded was 9.5 on the Richter scale, in Chile in 1960. The largest in North America was the 9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake in 1964, which killed nine people and spawned a tsunami that struck the Northwest coast. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which killed 750 to 2,500 people, was estimated to be an 8.2.
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    Community,   Current Tonight,   United States of America,   Seattle
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    News,  US News,  Earthquake,  Seattle
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7 comments // New data: Mega-quake could strike near Seattle

  • alivein85
    • 0
      alivein85  

    • tbowman131, that is just what i was going to say; let's not forget , mt rainier is a volcano

      how do u think the puget sound would be affected by a possible tsunami? do u think it would flood?

    • 2 years ago
  • tbowman131
  • tbowman131
    • 0
      tbowman131  

    • while we're trying to stoke up irrational fears, why not point out that mt rainier, the giant snow covered peak in the picture above, is a volcano and could erupt anytime...

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
  • stodgysvejk
    • 0
      stodgysvejk  

    • I always heard that "Big Ones" come every 400-500 years according to geological records, and the last one was in 1700. So I've always figured I'd be long gone before it hit.

      This stuff just goes along with living in this part of the world.

    • 2 years ago
  • maof4brats
    • 0
      maof4brats [removed]  

    • That is what I was going to say the coast run for the hills. My house is right next to the San Andres fault in the Mojave Desert. If the san an goes I will have beach front property. I have been through 3 major earthquakes they are not fun. I saw things nobody wants to see.

    • 2 years ago
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  

    • I live on the Oregon coast. If I survive the quake (my apartment house is built on pilings), I will have ten minutes to get to high ground.

    • 2 years ago
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