Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Earthquake Report Sends Shockwaves Through the Pacific Northwest

It could leave cities Unrecogizable.

WWW.WEATHER.COM

Roughly 80 miles off the coast of Oregon, there's a place deep down inside the Earth that few people living along the West Coast know about. But they will someday, years or even decades from now.

That's because this is a place called the Cascadia subduction zone, where a pair of tectonic plates are now grinding up against one another under the Pacific Ocean, and they're headed -- slowly but inevitably -- toward a moment when the pressure now building there will become too great to bear.

When that happens, a huge swath of the Pacific Northwest will be engulfed in the worst natural disaster in the history of North America, writes journalist Kathryn Schulz in a terrifying new article published this week in the New Yorker, titled "The Really Big One."

Enlarge

The structure of the Cascadia subduction zone. (Wikipedia)

What do scientists think will happen?

A massive earthquake that would lay waste to thousands of homes and buildings, devastate the power grid and energy infrastructure, and even do things like causing the edge of the continent to drop by as much as 30 feet and liquefying solid ground.
A mega-tsunami that would arrive onshore across the Northwestern coast within 15 minutes of the earthquake's strike, creating a "700-mile-long liquid wall" that would render the region "unrecognizable."
The deaths of 13,000 people, or perhaps many more, as well as more than 1 million left homeless, and the need to provide food and water for more than 2 million for perhaps months to come.

Kenneth Murphy, the director of the division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that's responsible for Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, said in an interview with Schulz, "Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.”

What makes this scenario even scarier is that while nations like Japan have developed and implemented earthquake warning systems that automatically shut down power plants and railroad lines, alert hospitals to interrupt surgeries and sound alarms for the general public, no such alert system is in place in the Pacific Northwest.

The story has sent waves of alarm shooting through social media, prompting three Seattle-based scientists and writers to take to Reddit yesterday for an "Ask Me Anything" session during which they answered any and all questions from readers related to the article.

John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, participated in the AMA and cautioned readers not to panicabout the story and its implications. "Overall, it was a well-written and documented article," he said. "The scenario left an impression of much greater devastation that is anticipated to occur, however."

When asked to elaborate, Vidale said, "Communications may black out, transportation may grind to a halt, stores conceivably could run out of goods for a while, but that doesn't constitute "toast" in one's mind. The speaker must have been referring to some aspect of those problems, not to smoking rubble."

For what it's worth, FEMA's Murphy told the New Yorker that he hopes the science is off, especially because the odds of such an earthquake striking the Northwest in the next 50 years are estimated to be "one in three."

“This is one time that I’m hoping all the science is wrong, and it won’t happen for another thousand years,” Murphy added.

Read much more in the full article at The New Yorker here, or in the AMA "We are earthquake experts. Ask us anything about The Really Big One" here.

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Photos of Nepal, Before & After

Greater global seismic unrest currently underway – Rare earthquakes are shaking the west coast of the US

The West coast of the US is waking up!

Within the past 24 hours, three faint to strong rare earthquakes have shaken the US West coast.

increase in earthquake may 2015, seismic earthquake increase world, us west coast seismic unrest may 2015, global seismic unrest may 2015, earthquake unrest may 2015, salton lake earthquake, oregon earthquake, utah earthquake may 2015, One of the recent earthquakes shaking dormant or active volcanoes on the US West Coast — One of the recent earthquakes shaking dormant or active volcanoes on the US West Coast

First, a 4.1M earthquake struck near Salton Sea butte Volcanoes, Southern California. Keep in mind that this 4.1M earthquake struck at a location where “professionals” are concerned about a potential eruption.

Then a rare magnitude 3.2 earthquake struck South Central Utah near the dormant Markagunt volcanic plateau in Oregon.

Both events probably led to the larger 5.8M earthquake, 5.5M tremors and 4.2M quake off the coast of Oregon, which occurred very close to the newly erupting undersea volcano along the Axial Seamount.

And don’t forget the 8.5M earthquake in Japan on May 30 3015!

Seeing noteworthy earthquakes striking near active or dormant volcanoes is a sign of the greater global seismic unrest currently underway.

There is certainly a temporary increase in activity taking place! Get prepared!

Source: StrangeSounds

Back in February, 2012