Uh oh..Lookout...Many quakes on the Juan De Fuca Plate...Oregon

This is just the kind of thing I was afraid of ever since the chile main quake.

When we didn't see the typicall reaction along the 'ring of fire', relieving the pressure, I was fearfull it might mean that something else was going to give. This might possibly be that reaction building up....but hopefully not.

I will pray that this is just a 'release', and nothing more will come of it. I am near the coast of washington so I am very biased.

I will also add that I have been monitoring USGS since a bit prior to the nice big quake in 2001 near Seattle (when I got access to the internet at home) and this is not normal. (at least not in recent history)

Edit to add: Just a note that I decided to check the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and it seems to be down.

[edit on 12-3-2010 by westcoast]

Here's a helicorder from Neilton Lookout, Washington, USA

aslwww.cr.usgs.gov...

Originally posted by westcoast

I will also add that I have been monitoring USGS since a bit prior to the nice big quake in 2001 near Seattle (when I got access to the internet at home) and this is not normal. (at least not in recent history)

Do you mean this is not normal for the Juan de Fuca Plate or not normal for the "ring of fire" as a whole?

Hmm, well, they are happening about 200 miles from the coastline, and probably around 250 or so to the stations, so I guess they're not powerful enough to register yet... But...but...

I probably don't need to mention this,but the Quake Watch thread is covering this,too.

Good to go back and forth!

reply to post by lostinspace


What I meant was in regards to the locations of these recent oregon quakes. You just don't see them this big right on the fault like this, especially not clusters. We are in a region that is surrounded by live volcanos, sitting at the crossroads, so we have to expect quakes, and we do have them. If you were to look at the history though, you would see a pattern of micro quakes happening near the volcanos and along known faults, sometimes popping up in wierd areas and shallow. To get anything above say a 2.0-2.5 though makes the news, because of the implications. It is not too uncommon to see these (maybe once a month, once every three months or three times in one month, it varies) Now, to get up into the 3.0 range turns heads, again because of the implications of this area. These happen a few times a year, but that large, not normally near the volcanoes (that would REALLY get people excited) rather out in the water, deeper and not usually felt. We just don't see quakes above the 4.0 range that often. They happen for sure, but it gets your attention and again, usually they are out in the water.

There has been ONE quake in this region above 6.0 that I personally remember since I moved here in 1990. Now, I would have to do a search to see if that is even true, but that is by my memory. There have been a few in the 5.0 range, but I think they were associated with the Helens erruptions.

SO....this all brings me to my observation that this little swarm of 4.0 quakes RIGHT on the fault line off the coast is NOT what I would call normal. I am definately paying attention to it and I really wish the PNSN was NOT down. That makes me a little edgy.

[edit on 13-3-2010 by westcoast]

Here's the Pacific Network webicorder listing, and clicking on a few of the Oregon ones there are things showing up...

www.pnsn.org...

But I am, and have been monitoring NLWA in GEE, which is way up in WA state, never saw them... Or on any other stations which are much closer, either.

Check out this live global earthquake map.... you can see the earthquakes right along the fault line in the ocean...scary stuff.
hisz.rsoe.hu...

I hope its just relieving itself rather than gearing up for a serious shift



[edit on 13-3-2010 by xynephadyn]

There was an Oregon earthquake prediction for last month, but the day was FRIDAY.

Could this be a prediction come true?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

ok, here is a webicorder right on the coast, and this is about the closest station I can find to these quakes, and look:

Reedsport, OR

They are barely registering on that. No wonder I can't see em in GEE.

The water and distance must be playing a part here to reduce these shocks into "real hard to detect".

[edit on Sat Mar 13th 2010 by TrueAmerican]

Well for those that believe in animals sensing quakes....my dogs are driving me crazy right now.

It is 10:40 at night, all is quiet but my dogs keep jumping up and running around barking at nothing.

Originally posted by xynephadyn
Check out this live global earthquake map.... you can see the earthquakes right along the fault line in the ocean...scary stuff.
hisz.rsoe.hu...〈=eng

I hope its just relieving itself rather than gearing up for a serious shift

[edit on 13-3-2010 by xynephadyn]

Check out Alaska a quake up there too at about the same time.

reply to post by doctor j and inmate c5779


I don't appreciate that!!! I live on the central Oregon Coast!!! I hope it doesn't hit anywhere! We just two (4.9 at 8:53PM and a 4.2 at 9:20 PM) 27 minutes apart! This is not normal activity here, that I am aware of.

I did expect that we would see increased activity since the 8.8 in Chile, all that vibration traveling throughout the earth is bound to jiggle something loose elsewhere.

I have been finding it hard to sleep for the past few nights...maybe I am subconsciously picking up on the geological stress off the coast.

I live 6 miles inland and at an elevation of about 100 ft and only one road out of here.

During tsunami warnings we have had in the past, the highway gets clogged up...with idiots from the inland cities coming to coast to see the tsunami!!!

Maybe the quakes and tsunami in Indonesia and now Chile will change their reckless behavior...I doubt it, though.

It looks like there's a lot of activity along that line.

Hope it will calm down and you are all save.

I keep following this.

Quakes on the eastern side of the Juan de Fuca plate are really not all that unusual. It's very active there. Even groups of a few mag 4-range quakes are nothing extraordinary.

Just to illustrate, here's a copy of the USGS Historic Seismicity Map for today's (UTC time) mag 4.9:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7161b4204180.jpg[/atsimg]

Those who'd prefer to check the actual page on USGS can do so via this link

The star denoting this particular quake might be hard to see because of all the orange markers for other quakes in the same area.

Regarding the "stuck" region: it's the western side of this plate that's apparently "stuck". Even in the map above, you can see some of the purple line (to the map's right) that indicates the subduction fault line. Very few quakes there, except down in the "triple junction" region nearer the shore. The last big quake along this subduction zone (on Jan 26, 1700), occurred near Vancouver Island -- on the Juan de Fuca plate's western side. That doesn't have to mean the next one will be in or near the same place. It could just as well be hundreds of km from that site, but along the same subduction zone boundary. (Viz the situation with Chile's huge quakes over the years, which have very similar mechanisms at work.)

Volcanics: unfortunately, USGS has not been routinely providing waveform data for quakes in the off-shore region, making it hard for us to try and assess exactly what type of seismic activity occurs there. We can speculate about volcanic activity but without having waveform data it's only that -- speculation.

Best regards,

Mike

Edited to fix a coding glitch and add some extra info. (I'm still on first java of the day.)

[edit on 13/3/10 by JustMike]

I've said a few times on these forums since the Chile earthquake that something major is going to happen soon, within 3 months of the Chile earthquake. I have been sensing it will be a natural disaster but I am unsure and I don't predict dates or anything, I'm just basically giving you all an idea of what I've been picking up personally.

And honestly, weeks before the Chile earthquake happened, I was telling everyone online, and offline, that I knew something was coming I could just feel it. And then I'm sitting online chatting with a friend and telling him about how I've been feeling something is going to happen and then the earthquake hit in Chile, literally as I was telling him how within the past couple days my feelings/senses of something bad happening had gotten stronger.

Right now when I think about all of this, and some new disaster hitting, I'm feeling it may be towards the end of this month, or early April.

Don't quote me on this though, unless I'm right.

And by the way, let's just hope that this is normal activity, and that you all are looking at these minor earthquakes too hard. It may just be over active imaginations here as well since so much has been happening lately. But then again I don't want to say it's impossible because I'm feeling something is coming myself...

reply to post by wdavidb

Alaska get lots of quakes every day. Thankfully, the vast majority of them are quite small. I don't think we can draw any conclusions about some sort of direct causal relationship between the small quakes in Alaska and other small ones off the PNW coast around Oregon purely on the basis of a few coincidental events. (I mean "coincidental" in the sense of them happening at around the same time.)

If there were to be a significant quake in Alaska then it might be another story. But even so, Alaska's huge mag 9.2 quake of March 27, 1964 did not trigger any major event in the Juan de Fuca subduction zone region that led to actual subduction. Such an event in Alaska theoretically could, but I don't know of any historical evidence that previous ones have.

Regards,

Mike

reply to post by highlyoriginal

Particularly the statement:

Originally posted by highlyoriginal
And by the way, let's just hope that this is normal activity, and that you all are looking at these minor earthquakes too hard. It may just be over active imaginations here as well since so much has been happening lately. But then again I don't want to say it's impossible because I'm feeling something is coming myself...

I don't know if we are all looking at them too hard, but yes, we are keeping an eye on them. This is a problematic region. There is nothing impossible about it; the potential for a mag 9-plus quake along or near the Juan de Fuca plate's western fault zone is well-known and acknowledged by scientists. This region has had huge quakes at intervals for thousands of years and it is considered a matter of "when" rather than "if" the next one will occur.

The problem is that it is very hard to determine if the activity on the non-subduction plate boundaries will give any real indication of when a "big one" might hit. It's 310 years since the last one and so actual empirical data is lacking in that regard. But I'd like to emphasize that the group of quakes in the region we're looking at now is not a unique event by any means. Here's a GIF image I created back in June, 2008 for another thread here on ATS that illustrates this:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/96d898b10e23.gif[/atsimg]

The original post may be found here.

While these regions of the plate are showing movement, the problem is that the western edge along the subduction zone has shown very little activity. The small movements/quakes in this other regions would have little or no relieving effect on a large quake in the subduction zone; in fact, they could indicate that the strain on that "stuck fault" is actually increasing.

So, whatever way we look at it, there is cause for concern. Not panic, by any means, but concern. Certainly, anyone who lives in that near-coastal region would be well advised to have their escape route well planned, taking into account that a major quake just offshore could drastically affect road communication infrastructure due to roadway collapses and landslides. The possible tsunami is another factor, because it could affect low-lying regions even some distance inland from the coast -- just as it did last time.

Mike

Originally posted by dgtempe
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

Its more of a gut feeling...I cant explain it, honestly. I'm not basing it on mathematics or the Sun or anything rational.

Must be careful TUESDAY (this is the tip off

I have to agree with what some are saying here about this actually being a good thing...maybe...lol. Purhaps the pressure is being vented little by little and I would think that this might stem off a large quake. Here in Portland we arent used to quakes. I was raised in Southern California and we had little ones all the time. But these web foots up here will panic and riot in the streets if they cant get to their lattes in time...lol. Thanks for the posting I'll be keeping my eye on this one too.