Cascadia Subduction Zone

685 Words2 Pages

With the recent earthquakes in California, many are worried about the next earthquake that could be the potential “big” one that many geologists have been predicting for many years. The Cascadia subduction zone is also known as CSZ megathrust fault. It is roughly 1000km long, a dipping fault that stretches from Northern Vancouver Islands to Cape Mendocino California. The zone passes through British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and into California.
The Cascadia region has experienced several types of earthquakes and it is very likely to experienced similar quakes in the near future. Cascadia earthquakes fall into three major categories: The first type is shallow or crustal earthquakes which are caused by rupture of the faults in the North American Plate. The Scott Mills earthquake happened in 1993 and it occurred in the Willamette Valley. The second type is deep or intraplate earthquakes are caused by rupture faults within the subducting Juan de Fuca Plate, deep earthquakes are often the most damaging type of earthquakes. In 2001, a deep earthquake named the Nisqually hit the Puget Sound area of Western Washington. The third type is the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes are the powerful and with the largest magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a bit more complicated than other two types of earthquakes. The zone separates the Juan de Fuca plates and the North American plate, subduction earthquakes happen when one plate is pushing beneath each other. When one of the faults ruptures, the overriding plate push upward generating frictional stress eventfully the stress reaches a critical point, a sudden failure occurs along the fault plane resulting in the “megathrust” earthquake rel...

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... dunes will hold off the wave that would be coming ashore. There are signs all over the city, and we have been going to Manzanita for over 15 years, our family has never talked about who to do, we don’t know where to go and we don’t have a emergency supply stored in case of any emergencies. I truly believe that the city has to educate their residents and run practices, like fire drills for schools. I think being prepared and educated will save many lives if and when we get the big one in the Cascadia region.

Works Cited

http://www.crew.org/cascadia http://www.crew.org/sites/default/files/cascadia_subduction_scenario_2013.pdf http://www.pnsn.org/outreach/earthquakesources/crustalfaults www.iris.edu/hq/files/programs/education_and_outreach/aotm/5/2.Subduction_Rebound_Background.pdf www.crew.org/sites/default/files/cascadia_subduction_scenario_2013.pdf

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