Slow Slip Earthquake season raises risks of The Big One - PNW/ Vancouver BC Area

Thought this deserved it's own thread for those of us living in this region of Washington state, Oregon, California & British Columbia south coast.



Slow Slip Earthquake season raises risks of The Big One

B.C. is headed back into another one of its riskier seismic seasons, raising the risk of "The Big One," earthquake experts say.

Every 14 months, the Cascadian subduction zone — which runs from northern Vancouver Island down to northern California — experiences what seismologists call a "slow slip."

This year's slip has already kicked off underneath Washington State and is expected to reach B.C. any day now.

More on 'slow slips' from CBC meterologist Johanna Wagstaffe
The phenomenon happens when seismic stress shifts onto the fault area where the Juan de Fuca and North American plates lock together.

That causes thousands of mini-tremors and heightens the likelihood of a major earthquake event in B.C., according to seismologist Alison Bird.

"If that locked zone is close to critical, and you add more stress on to it ... that could trigger, theoretically, the 'megathrust' earthquake," said Bird, who works for the Geological Survey of Canada.

Source:
www.cbc.ca...

All of those northwestern coastal Indian legends.... Imagine the widespread destruction of a modern rendition.

This time will be entire cities wiped off the planet, and not just tribes.

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
All of those northwestern coastal Indian legends.... Imagine the widespread destruction of a modern rendition.

This time will be entire cities wiped off the planet, and not just tribes.

Says a mega thrust would rupture like a zipper!
www.cbc.ca...

Stress is building

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a 1000 km fault that runs from Northern Vancouver Island to Northern California. The fault itself is a boundary between two tectonic plates: the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is moving towards, and getting shoved under the North American plate that we live on.

A section of that boundary has become locked together — the plates are no longer sliding smoothly. So all that forward movement is being stored up inside the rocks, waiting for the day that the energy will be released as a catastrophic megathrust earthquake, colloquially known on the Pacific Northwest as the 'Big One'.

www.cbc.ca...

Brace yourself everybody in Northwest area. This is real, not training. It can happen sooner than later.

a reply to: violet

My point is it happened before. There is a group out there trying to gather what little is left of the native oral histories. Very little is left for two reasons.. youngsters generally didn't care to learn the oral histories, and so many were killed by the waves that the accounts of the destruction were few and far between.

But oral histories have been found in part all along that stretch of coast.

Still some interesting reading out there.

a reply to: violet

when it goes......and it will eventually......slow slips occuring building up stress...good article

a reply to: violet

There was a large interagency exercise not long ago that dealt with a 9.0 off the coast. While there are plans in place, including military assistance, the result is going to be ugly and even hundreds of miles inland will likely take years to completely rebuild.

The article I linked points to what was the latest unzipping that possibly occurred around January 1700.... Interestingly, that was right in the thick of the Maunder Minimum..

Knowing that gives me shivers.

They have names the approaching solar minimum the Eddy Minimum.

I shared about the Cascadia ETS last night with the PNSN update, blog info release - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Good to see there's a news article on it now. Not seeing one on the US side so far.

The article also claims the EQs last night were not related, though the one I felt(closest to Seattle) is in the zone which has been very active with this slip so far as shared on the tremor map. The area also had tremors and of course aftershocks around that time.

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
January 1700.... Interestingly, that was right in the thick of the Maunder Minimum

Interesting thought. It would be a big coincidence if it actually happen.

a reply to: Bobaganoosh

I've read various versions of the dates and pattern it repeats. Some say every 3-400 years. So it comes out at any time or within a hundred years from now.

The stories all say a great tsunami destroying everything and everyone in its path.
I don't care to go to Vancouver island because of this threat. Who wants to be stuck on an island inundated with water? The ferries wouldn't be running.

Richmond near Vancouver has the clay soil, liquification factor. Thst article said if you were standing on a beach you sunk into the sand! In other areas , you weren't able to stand. It would be a very long shake and jolts.

I posted this pic in another thread . It's from QuakeWatch.net

Glad my mother sold her B&B in Tofino.

a reply to: violet

So, would those deep movements in the article be what SO's followers know as Blot-Echos?

I can't wait for April.. OTF 2017 will be pretty interesting.

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
a reply to: violet

So, would those deep movements in the article be what SO's followers know as Blot-Echos?

I can't wait for April.. OTF 2017 will be pretty interesting.

I don't know ... anyone else know?

What do you mean about April OTF?

a reply to: violet

Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine!

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: violet

Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine!

Just a messenger

a reply to: violet

I know. Apologies.

I live on the coast, so I'm toast.

a reply to: violet

Observing the Frontier. It is a gathering of the Suspicious Observers. Ben Davidson who heads Suspicious Observers also runs quakewatch.net. The maps you posted come to the Disaster Prediction App. Read the two peer reviewed papers linked on quake watch about the predictability of earthquakes. It also explains what Blot-Echos are.

This year's observing the Frontier conference is in Albuquerque. I have my tickets at the ready. It's all about learning to predict earthquakes this year.