New data: Mega-quake could strike near Seattle

New data: Mega-quake could strike near Seattle

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — 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.

Whereas the scientists once predicted that a mega-earthquake would be centered just off the Northwest coast, now — using data from the tremors research — they say that it could be 30 miles or more inland, under the Olympic Peninsula, which lies to the west of Seattle and Tacoma across Puget Sound.

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

:scared:

Although we're no stranger to quakes (I've experienced at least 10 -- the largest being 6.8)we've been RELATIVELY unscathed. A death or two at most, some building destruction, but none of the horrific leveling of cities we see elsewhere in the world. We're always being told to expect a BIG ONE. Oh yeah, and to expect Mt. Rainier to blow. :7

A quake the severity of the 9.0 mentioned in the article is a whole new ballgame.

down into the lower areas. Even with a moderate quake there will be that possibility.

look at it and wonder how something so breathtakingly beautiful could be potentially so dangerous.

I loved the drive out there -- it was incredibly beautiful, especially when the flowers were blooming.

I expect to be in your neighborhood again this December. Maybe we can do coffee?

So they elders cautioned long ago of Mount St. Helens and Rainier...

people from the NW on here. :hide:

:7

Several years ago I was walking to a workshop with three friends, two Seattle natives like me, and one newly arrived from Wisconsin. Ms. Wisconsin said "It's so STILL, so quiet." We all spun around and hollered "DON'T SAY THAT!" We call that 'earthquake weather'. Don't know if there's anything to it, but I wonder if it's like the Chinese and their crickets -- when they all of a sudden went silent, you knew the ground was about to shake... :shrug:

Edit - spelling -- how many different ways can YOU spell Wisconsin? :eyes:

never even knew why it's called that until after I had been attending a school in that area for awhile. no wonder I felt a kind of spookiness, but had attributed it to the proliferation of crackheads. they and they often act like an earthquake is happening in their own heads.

"they say that it could be 30 miles or more inland, under the Olympic Peninsula, which lies to the west of Seattle and Tacoma across Puget Sound.

"The closer you are to the source, the stronger the shaking," "

Interesting that they are now saying the Olympic peninsula now, which makes sense since the Olympics are a jumbled mess from this in the past. I keep a good emergency gear stash, mostly because being out of the way like we are (a ways from Seattle city) we won't get help for a while, but also now because we may be epicenter.

I just repacked my car kit, updated from 2 yrs ago switching out food/water. Keep a set of clothing and boots in there also. Along with my inflatable kayak and chainsaw. MrUP laughs at my truck full. Oh well.

to it, any more than I have an actual emergency kit at home. You're an inspiration!

Where do you live?

was to make a good list and just do as much as I could whenever I was at the grocery story. Doing it all at the same time was just too much but buying one or two things at a time and slipping them into a back pack or in a box for home, that was pretty easy. :hi:

and not make a dent in normal use at all.

It was after I returned home after helping out after Katrina that I made a car kit. I usually don't go more than 10 miles, but want to be able to get back home. The kayak usually is in the car only in the summer, chainsaw during windy season. MrUP says that if I ever drove off a cliff, by the time rescue got to me I'd have a log cabin made and fully stocked.

Mostly I want to be able to get back home, and be able to survive a week doing so.

That's funny what your husband said -- and probably true!

Good tips and maybe I'll actually DO some of them! :hi:

imagine what a 9.0 or 9.2 might feel like. That boggles the mind.

Did you know that the earthquake in Alaska lasted for nearly FIVE MINUTES? That boggles the mind as well. I think I'd lose my mind! The entire earth vibrated after that one. I've been to places in Northern California where there is still debris in the hills near the coast from the tsunami that struck there afterward.

I've been thinking we're due for another one here in So. Cal.

how long they will last. I think the one in 2001 in Seattle lasted about 45 seconds, and I remember remarking to someone, 'hmmmm, this is lasting a long time' -- it felt like it just kept on going and going. I'm with you -- 5 minutes -- can't even comprehend what thoughts would be going through my mind over that period of time.

I lived in so cal for 38 years. Wasn't there a quake somewhere near L.A. this year?

Now of course, I live in the Pacific Northwest. Out of the frying pan.....

nuclear weapons are stored.

Perhaps a massive earthquake wouldn't effect them.

The overall destruction and the subsequent tsunami would absolutely devastate this area. Very scary.

Here's hoping it holds off for a century or two. Or longer.

We moved the folks out of Eureka, California, because of the earthquakes. We couldn't get to them for days after a major quake, and with the health issues that attend the elderly it was a major concern.

And where did we bring them? To the Olympic Peninsula. But at least they haven't rocked and rolled like they did in Eureka (which, aside from the earthquakes, is a beautiful and delightful place). Mom's nerves had gotten so bad that she shook constantly, she doesn't do that nowadays.

Most of our quakes here are little ones, but everyone knows a big one will come sooner or later. Hopefully not during my lifetime, LOL. I'm not moving!

It was a doozy of a quake that finally convinced the folks that it was time to relocate. It was in the later 1990s, and it turned their house on its side and then set it back. Mom was in the hallway at the time, so she didn't get thrown around a lot. But it did empty the bathtub she'd just filled, smashed a chandelier against the ceiling, and threw her houseplants across the living room. Dad was in Arcata when the quake hit and he barely noticed it; so he was stunned when he got home and found Mom in hysterics in the middle of a pile of debris.

Life as we know it will end here in the Pacific Northwest if/when that happens.

I just knew I needed something else to worry about...

The worst thing we have to worry about around here are blizzards, tornadoes, and the occasional flood. The west coast is an unstable tectonic mess

:(

IMO claims that it's "due" are based on bad statistics, an 800,000-year and 600,000-year time period between the 3 eruptions is not a cycle make.

Here I sit, on Seattle's Capitol Hill, having a perfectly nice Sunday afternoon, and...

I neve know how to feel about this stuff. We in Seattle know it, and we try to be prepared, and it might get us anyway. I could move back to New Orleans...no, that wouldn't work. Maybe San Francisco. Noooo... NYC? I guess as long as I stay out of skyscrapers and airplanes. Florida? Oh heck, the pythons and gators are taking that one. Midwest? Killer heat waves and some magnificent floods. Oh to heck with it; I think I'll just enjoy the afternoon sun, go to a fine bookstore, have a good cup of coffee and enjoy the fact that my fellow Seattleites are mostly screaming, left-wing, bleeding heart liberals.

Have a nice day.

Capitol Hill -- you'll go out surrounded by friends. :7

but it was much lower on the Richter scale

Incidentally, I was stuck on the 46th floor at the time and it felt as if we were going to plunge to the ground! Suuuper scary.