Global Courant 2023-05-10 09:00:15
Pacific Beach, WA – Researchers at the University of Washington have made a crucial discovery to better understand earthquake zones off the West Coast.
The findings give them more insight into a part of the country that could generate a major earthquake.
“It provides a more complete (sic) understanding of the fundamentals, the fundamental understanding of how subduction zones work,” said UW assistant professor Evan Solomon.
Solomon and other researchers study subduction zones — the areas under water that create earthquakes when tectonic plates collide.
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Researchers at the University of Washington discovered warm liquid emerging from the sea floor. (Fox news)
The research team discovered warm fluid emanating from the seafloor off the Oregon coast, giving them a better idea of how tectonic plates click into place between major earthquakes.
“They are like messengers from the deep,” Solomon said. “They give us a pretty good intact, pristine example of what the fluids are like at these plate boundary depths.”
The discovery came along the Cascadia Subduction Zone — a fault line more than 600 miles long stretching from southern British Columbia to northern California.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs for 600 miles from southern British Columbia to northern California. (Fox news)
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Solomon hopes the research will help improve earthquake prediction down the line.
“This new finding provides new information for our models of how subduction zones work,” Solomon said. “And those models could potentially eventually be used for earthquake prediction.”
The Pacific coast is about 100 miles from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, meaning coastal towns will soon feel the effects of an earthquake.
“Once the shaking stops, we have about 15 to 30 minutes to reach higher ground before the first tsunami waves will hit,” said Scott Cameron, a geologist from Seabrook, Washington.
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Coastal towns have plans in case of flooding caused by an earthquake. (Fox news)
Coastal towns pay close attention to earthquake threats and need the most up-to-date information to prepare.
“The key is to communicate what we do know,” Cameron said. “Right now we have models and an understanding based on the best available science that we have. And we need to make sure this gets out to the public.”
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There is a 15% chance that a major earthquake will occur in the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the next 50 years. If it happens, experts think it could be similar to Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which killed nearly 20,000 people.
Jake Karalexis joined Fox News in 2022 as a multimedia reporter in Seattle.
