Cascadia subduction zone: Difference between revisions

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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_subduction_zone The Cascadia Subduction Zone] stretches from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. It is a very long sloping fault that separates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Fuca_Plate Juan de Fuca plate] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Plate North America plates].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_subduction_zone The Cascadia Subduction Zone] stretches from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. It is a very long sloping fault that separates the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_Fuca_Plate Juan de Fuca plate] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Plate North America plates].


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[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703597804576194100479604290.html The Quake produced a flood of Tweets], [http://twitter.com/search/%23prayforjapan PrayforJapan], [http://twitter.com/search/%23tsunami#search?q=%23tsunami tsunami], [http://twitter.com/search/%23japon#search?q=%23japon japon] and [http://twitter.com/search/Text%20REDCROSS#search?q=Text%20REDCROSS Text REDCROSS].
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703597804576194100479604290.html The Quake produced a flood of Tweets], [http://twitter.com/search/%23prayforjapan PrayforJapan], [http://twitter.com/search/%23tsunami#search?q=%23tsunami tsunami], [http://twitter.com/search/%23japon#search?q=%23japon japon] and [http://twitter.com/search/Text%20REDCROSS#search?q=Text%20REDCROSS Text REDCROSS].
== External Links ==
* [http://www.cascadia-institute.org/ Cascadia Institute]
* [http://www.sightline.org/ Sightline Institute]
* [[wikipedia:Cascadia (independence movement)|Cascadia on Wikipedia]]
* [http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/ Alaska Tsunami Ctr] and [http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/links/natwc.links.php Links]
* [http://ptwc.weather.gov/?region=2 Hawaii Tsunami Center] and [http://www.tsunami.org/ Museum]
* [http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/ Japan Meteorological Agency]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http://mapvisage.appspot.com/kml/noaajapantsunami&aq=&sll=51.493248,-0.137184&sspn=0.00863,0.022724&ie=UTF8&ll=-3.138472,-153.5&spn=175.642938,24.609375&t=h&z=1&iwloc=lyrftr:kml:cr_GYunXhWpPwwJCXIACmXLWWauXm05kA,gd7da511a3552f40e," target=new>Google Mapvisage]
* [http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/honshu20110311 PMEL Tsunami Research Program]
* [http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/ USGS Earthquake Ctr]
* [http://www.oregongeology.org/tsuclearinghouse/default.htm Oregon Tsunami Clearinghouse]
* [http://www.nanoos.org/data/products/oregon_tsunami_evacuation_zones/index.php Oregon Tsunami Evacuation Zones]
* [http://www.oregon.gov/OMD/OEM/ Oregon Emergency Management]
* [http://oregonaresd1.org/links/ Oregon ARES/RACES]
* [http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/PNSN/welcome.html U/W’s Live Seismographs]
* [http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/ Cascades Volcano Observatory]
* [http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/PNSN/welcome.html Live MT Saint Helens Seismograph]
* [http://www.pnsn.org/recenteqs/latest.htm U/W’s Recent Quakes]
* [http://quake.geo.berkeley.edu/bdsn/quicklook.html Live California  Seismographs]
* [http://map.ngdc.noaa.gov/website/seg/hazards/viewer.htm World Quake Map]
* [http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recent/helicorders/index.html Calif/Nev Life Seismo]
* [http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/waveforms/helicorder/index.html N. Calif Recorders]
* [http://www.usarray.org/ US Array]
* [http://www.oceanleadership.org/2011/special-photo-tour-horizontal-directional-drilling-progress-at-pacific-city-site/ Northwest Ocean Observatory]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/index.html Savage Earth]
* [http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/blueplanet/blueplanet.html Discovery Planet]
* [http://vearthquake.calstatela.edu/edesktop/VirtApps/VirtualEarthQuake/VQuakeExecute.html Virtual Earth Quake]
* [http://www.isc.ac.uk/ International Seismological Centre]
* [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/ USGS Global Quake Map]
* [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake_and_tsunami OpenStreetMap: Sendai Quake]
* [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Portland Portland Open Street Map]
* [http://nthmp.tsunami.gov/ Tsunami Hazard Ctr]
* [http://www.tsunami.noaa.gov/prepare.html Tsunami Mitigation]
* [http://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=topic:earthquake&ict=clu_top/ Google Quake News]

Revision as of 12:19, 17 July 2011

The Cascadia Subduction Zone stretches from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. It is a very long sloping fault that separates the Juan de Fuca plate and North America plates.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone Quake will generate two Tsunami waves, one propagating towards the coast, and the other towards the deep ocean and Hawaii.

It will take only minutes to reach the coasts of Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia, and northern California with wave heights reaching close to 12m (~36ft) in some scenarios.

Cascadia Subduction Zone
Cascadia Subduction Zone
Brian Atwater

Geologist Brian Atwater shows a cross-section of cedar killed by the last Cascadia earthquake in January, 1700. Atwater discovered proof that a recurrent massive subduction zone tsunami hits the West Coast every 300-450 years (Video presentation).


According to calculations by Chris Goldfinger, a geologist at Oregon State University, there's an 80 percent chance that the portion of the fault off southern Oregon and Northern California would break in the next 50 years.

John Delaney leads the team at the University of Washington on the innovative, cabled network of instruments off the West Coast.

Ocean Observatory Network
Ocean Observatory Network

The Ocean Observatories program began in earnest in Feb, 2011, the installation of undersea power and data cables at Pacific City, Oregon, for the cabled component of the OOI.

Ocean Observatory Network
Ocean Observatory Network

Three Implementing Organizations are responsible for construction and development of the overall program. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and its partners, Oregon State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography are responsible for the coastal and global moorings and their autonomous vehicles.

Earthquakes create various types of waves with different velocities.

P-waves, for primary waves, are produced by earthquakes and recorded by seismometers. They are the highest velocity and therefore the first to be recorded. The S-wave, or secondary wave, is perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation, like waves in a rope, as opposed to P-waves like those moving through a slinky.

Each tsunameter has a pressure recorder anchored to the seafloor. The recorder’s readings were relayed to NOAA’s network of geostationary weather satellites (GOES) in the first DART models.

The real-time satellite data are analyzed at NOAA’s tsunami warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska, which issues alerts to emergency officials.

Ocean Observatory Network
Ocean Observatory Network

The Coast Guard uses dozens of buoys bobbing off U.S. coastlines from Maine to Alaska, which also extend the reach of a Automated Identification System. It monitors large vessels heading in and out of ports, extending the network and relaying information from hundreds of miles off shore.

Tsunami Map
Tsunami Map

An international warning system was started in 1965, the year after tsunamis associated with a magnitude-9.2 temblor struck Alaska and the West Coast in 1964. It is administered by NOAA. The PMEL Tsunami Research Program seeks to mitigate tsunami hazards to Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

Member states include all the major Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America, was well as the Pacific islands, Australia, New Zealand, France, which has sovereignty over some Pacific islands, and Russia. The Indian Ocean has rarely experienced tsunamis and does not have an active warning system.

Ocean Observatory Network
Ocean Observatory Network


James Roddey, a geologist known as Oregon’s “Prophet of Doom,” explains it it stark terms. The coming Cascadia event could tip the scales at a magnitude above 9.5 – larger than all 20th-century earthquakes combined, according to Roddey, and last up to five minutes (Video).

Here's the scientific consensus on what will happen in Portland:

"Several of the 10 bridges across the Willamette River will collapse—the Steel Bridge, Sellwood Bridge and Marquam Bridge, most likely—and the rest will be impassible. Big Pink and other office towers will sway so violently their granite and glass façades will shear off and crash into the street, piling rubble up 4 feet deep. The Multnomah County Courthouse will tumble. Underground gas, power and water lines will be pulverized. The soil beneath the Portland International Airport will temporarily turn to soup."

The Red Cross has Earth Quake Kits and Humaninet has some tips that could save lives.

Gizmodo lists emergency apps such as Pocket First Aid and CPR, First Responder Info, Disaster Readyness, and Emergency Radio.

The 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami, with a magnitude of 8.9, made it the largest earthquake to hit Japan in recorded history and the sixth largest in the world since records began and may be a sister of the Earthquake and Tsunami that is likely to hit the Northwest in our lifetimes.


More information on the 2011 Sendai earthquake is available at Google News, Yahoo, Blog Runner, and TechMeme.

Ustream is carrying live TV feeds from the Japan public broadcaster, NHK, while Al Jazeera, The BBC, CNN and NPR have live blogs.

C/Net has links for finding family and friends. Here's a diagram and an OpenStreetMap of Japan.

Japan's Kobe Port was the country's busiest port until the Kobe Earthquake. Kobe has since dropped to the fourth in Japan and forty-fifth busiest container port worldwide (as of 2008).


OpenStreetMap has good map data of affected regions in Japan, and the Humanitarian OSM Team is on hand to help. CrisisWiki is an editable directory of resources related to disasters and crises around the world.

Oregonian stories and twitter feeds include ORTsunam, ARRL Emergency.

Social media and the web have become the go-to for real-time information, says Mashable. Facebook sites that cover the quake include JapanEarthquake, Solidaritytsunamimarch2011, and the The US Weather Service.

The Quake produced a flood of Tweets, PrayforJapan, tsunami, japon and Text REDCROSS.

External Links