Have we discussed the Cascadia subduction zone yet?
 

This one looks a lot more likely to happen in our lifetimes than the Yellowstone caldera blowing. I had never heard of this. Very bad news and a matter of when, not if. Must read.

The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle - The New Yorker

I just read that 5 minutes ago. Considering how I may not survive it, sort of a big deal.

I've known about it for a long time. (I'm a geologist) But it's true, its seems to be known by very few people, even among those that are in danger. It won't be pretty.

Article is very viral in my neck of the woods (Seattle). I live way up a hill, but work downtown where things could get really ugly with soil liquefaction and a half cocked tunnel project running under my building.

Wow. Not good at all. Why isn't more being done in the PNW to prepare for something like this?

Your not California that has had big movements before which have wrecked havoc...

Cajon 1859, Sand Francisco 1906, Long Beach 1933, Silmar 1971, S F again late 80's, Northridge early 1992, Then Landers and Big Bear mid 90's. SmileWavy

Makes me glad to be in South Georgia far from techtonic plate edges, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc.! All we have to worry about are hurricanes, tornadoes, snakes, rabid wildlife and drunk rednecks!

Getting anything at all done in Seattle is next to impossible, between getting people to vote for it, environmental studies, legal challenges from people affected and The Sierra Club... It's a miracle that anything at all can be accomplished.

I used to live in Lower Queen Anne and took the Viaduct to get to work at BFI. When traffic would stop completely I could feel the traffic on the upper level gently shaking the roadway, and I'd often times think about how it would be a really bad time for even a medium sized earthquake to hit. It was right around the time that WS DOT made that video that showed the Viaduct collapsing, sections of Alaskan Way sliding into the harbor, fires starting and things like that.

I thought a good chunk of downtown, basically from the Sound to 2nd Ave was more or less built on fill and the area used to be a marsh?

Thanks for posting that. I enjoyed the writers style and how the information was presented.

I had no idea that the earthquake in Kashiwa lasted over three minutes.

Very interesting article. Even those of us in flyover country aren't immune to earthquakes. The New Madrid fault line (abut 150 miles southeast of where I live) has the same potential for devastation as Cascadia and has demonstrated its power in the past:

1811–12 earthquake series[edit]

Main article: 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes
December 16, 1811, 0815 UTC (2:15 a.m.); (M ~7.2 – 8.2[9]) epicenter in northeast Arkansas; it caused only slight damage to man-made structures, mainly because of the sparse population in the epicentral area. The future location of Memphis, Tennessee was shaken at Mercalli level nine intensity. A seismic seiche propagated upriver and Little Prairie was destroyed by liquefaction.[10] Local uplifts of the ground and water waves moving upstream gave the illusion that the river was flowing backwards.[9]
At New Madrid, trees were knocked down and riverbanks collapsed. This event shook windows and furniture in Washington, D.C., rang bells in Richmond, Virginia, sloshed well water and shook houses in Charleston, South Carolina, and knocked plaster off of houses in Columbia, South Carolina. In Jefferson, Indiana, furniture moved and in Lebanon, Ohio, residents fled their homes. Observers in Herculaneum, Missouri, called it "severe" and said it had a duration of 10–12 minutes.[11]Aftershocks were felt every six to ten minutes, a total of 27, in New Madrid until what was called the Daylight Shock, which was of the same intensity as the first. Many of these were also felt throughout the eastern US, though with less intensity than the initial earthquake.[11]

Great article, RL. Thanks for posting it.

It is well written. I wish I could write like that.

Thanks for posting that link.

Well, the media has spoken, This is old news to many of us I the NW. It falls under the category of "**** happens". (or is going to). At my age, I will prolly just have a heart attack during the event and miss the aftermath.
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Hoy cow. So much for high property values.

Here's hoping for the best for you guys. Despite our many issues here in jersey at least the ground doesn't move much at all.

Great read, RL. Thanks.

If that happens it will put quite a dent in the world's hipster population.

I finally plowed through the whole article.
The devastation potential is understated.

For instance, nearly all the Boeing production facilities are built on land fill or delta of various rivers in Seattle. First, liquefaction then flood. In a few hours, Boeing ceases to exist as a viable company.....not to mention, the loss of life ......Buy Airbus stock, eh?

During the last "big one" in Alaska, the tidal surge moving up fiords moved up to a height of 1200 feet when it reached the end of the channel. Those channels were small compared to Puget Sound. The nuke boats in Bremerton are in a similar fix.

I hope to be taking he dirt nap when this event takes place.

The brevity of our lives breeds a kind of temporal parochialism—an ignorance of or an indifference to those planetary gears which turn more slowly than our own.

I have kept tellin ya all for years about taking a longer view of the American economy....

Back when I was into predicting Earthquakes on this Board...I first got interested in it because of the Humboldt fault zone off of N California...it is one of the more active zones as it frequently ruptures with 5's and 6's. I was figuring that if something happened on this side of the Ring of Fire it would put pressure on the other side to eventually move as well. In sort of a seismic dance. I kind of gave up thinking about it as a fools errand because TABS time does not correspond to geologic time..

Then comes the money to rebuild the PNW if and when..with the US and worlds state of finances good luck with rebuilding.


Take a look at the time line...in 1964 Alaska suffers a 9.2 Quake along the Denali fault zone...the land pushes out or snaps back 66 feet to the south That has to put pressure on the Cascadia fault zone in a SE trending direction which in 1982 causes Mt St Helens to blow. There has been and is a lot of activity on the Humboldt fault in N CA which is where San Andreas and Cascadia meet. Now Cascadia has gone quiet, So where is Cascadia going to rupture...go due west of Mt St Helens.

What u have to remember is that the Tectonic plates are always readjusting themselves to relieve pressure that has built up. When you take a little pressure off here X, pressure begins to build over there > Y.

Now if I told you all the exact time, you all wouldn't remember so what is the use.

Yawn.

This is old and accepted news. In Washington alone we have three big a$$ volcanoes (OK, two and a half) and the entire Puget Sound is resplendent with fault lines. A lot of Seattle is built on fill (Downtown, Harbor Is, Greenlake) and effecting all this is the subduction zone. Anyone paying attention would be comfortable saying it is going to be catastrophic if something happens.

And just what can be done about it? Empty Downtown and rebuild on bedrock? Build a big dam around the Sound as a seawall to control the tsunami? Raise all the Boeing plants up on stilts? Maybe some causeways to control the flooding from Rainer or Baker blowing up? As mentioned by Scuba Steve, Seattle is not well know for progressive thinking about infrastructural improvements.

So, what should be done to better prepare for an earthquake, eruption or tsunami to protect millions of people over hundreds (thousands?) of miles of coastline?