{"id":6817,"date":"2015-02-03T14:08:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T22:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/?p=6817"},"modified":"2015-02-03T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T22:08:32","slug":"future-of-huge-earthquakes-in-the-pacific-northwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/future-of-huge-earthquakes-in-the-pacific-northwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of huge earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earthquake\"<\/a>January 27th<\/sup>, 2015 was the 315th<\/sup> anniversary of a tsunami that struck the shores of Japan. Detailed historical records from the time indicated high waves in several locations around Japan, but with additional confusing note: there was no record of the ground shaking from a corresponding earthquake. How could there be a tsunami without a quake?<\/p>\n

Painstaking research done by geologists, historians, and paleoseismologists over the past several decades has unraveled this mystery. The tsunami was the result of a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, the time of which can be pinpointed to January 26th<\/sup>, 1700 at approximately 9pm: about 10 hours before the large waves began to be recorded across the Pacific Ocean in Japan.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the work being done by researchers and scientists, much more is known now about the huge earthquakes which periodically erupt along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an 800-mile long area off the coast of Northern California through Southern British Columbia where a massive earthquake fault exists between two tectonic plates. Collins library offers up a number of resources for learning more about these quakes.<\/p>\n

The University of Washington geologist Brian Atwater wrote up his findings in the book The Orphan Tsunami of 1700<\/a>, published the University of Washington Press in 2005. In 2013, local journalist Sandi Doughton, science writer for the Seattle Times<\/em>, published a book called Full Rip 9.0<\/em><\/a>, a fascinating and accessible account of how the evidence for these historical megaquakes was found, as well as a sobering account of the earthquake preparedness (or lack thereof) in the Pacific Northwest region. Robert Yeats, a professor emeritus of geology at Oregon State University, has also published several books about earthquakes in general and the Cascadia Subduction Zone in particular, including a comprehensive and scientific survey of active earthquake faults worldwide, Active Faults of the World<\/em><\/a>, and the more locally-focused Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

After reading up on the history and future of huge earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest, you may want to head to the website of the Earthquakes Hazard Program<\/a>, which provides data for recent and significant earthquakes around the world. \u00a0More locally, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup<\/a> has created a Cascadia Subduction Zone Magnitude 9.0 scenario<\/a> (opens as a pdf). This document lays out in clear language the details of one of these enormous quake, the likely resulting damages, and the options for predicting and preparing for such an event.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a matter of \u2018if\u2019 one of these major seismic events will strike the Northwest, but \u2018when.\u2019 The average time between magnitude 9 quakes along the Cascadia Subduction zone is about 500 years, but can be as little as 100-300 years. The recent observance of the 315th <\/sup>anniversary of the last giant quake is an important reminder that it\u2019s time to start preparing for the next one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 27th, 2015 was the 315th anniversary of a tsunami that struck the shores of Japan. Detailed historical records from the time indicated high waves in several locations around Japan, but with additional confusing note: there was no record of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6819,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6817\/revisions\/6819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}