Discovery Along Cascadia Fault Gives Insight Into Area Prone To Massive Killer Quakes Out West

Now, scientists have discovered something unusual on the seafloor miles off the coast of Oregon. To better help them understand earthquake zones. Now, this is especially important for coastal communities who could get flooding from an earthquake within half an hour after it starts. Fox's Jake Carilexus is in Pacific Beach, Washington today. Jake, what do we need to know about these findings? Jane, researchers want to emphasize that this discovery does not mean a major earthquake is imminent, but it is giving them more insight into a part of the country that could produce a big earthquake. It provides a more fuller understanding of the fundamentals, the foundational understanding of how subduction zones work. Researchers at the University of Washington have a new way to study subduction zones, which are areas underwater that produce earthquakes when tectonic plates collide.

Solomon and other scientists discovered warm liquid coming from the seafloor. This gives them a better idea of how tectonic plates lock into place between large earthquakes. They're like messengers from the deep. They're providing us a pretty well intact pristine sample of what the fluids are like in the plate boundary at these depths. The discovery happened along the Cascadia subduction zone, a fault line more than 600 miles long stretching from Washington state down to California. Solomon says it could help improve earthquake forecasting down the line. This new finding provides new information for our models of how subduction zones work, and those models are being improved all the time and eventually can be potentially used for forecasting of earthquakes.

The Pacific Coast is around 100 miles from the Cascadia subduction zone. Scott Cameron says it would feel a quick impact from an earthquake. As soon as the shaking stops, we have about anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to get to high ground before the first tsunami waves will hit. Coastal towns pay close attention to earthquake threats. Cameron says they need the most up to date information to prepare. The key is to make sure we communicate what we do know right now. We have models and an understanding based on the best available science we have, and we need to make sure that gets out to the public.

Solomon says there's a 15 percent chance of a major earthquake coming from the Cascadia subduction zone in the next 50 years. It could be comparable to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that killed almost 20,000 people. Jane? We're going to hope for the best there. Stay care, Alexis, in Pacific Beach. Thanks for joining us. I'm Amy Freese. Welcome to Fox Weather's YouTube page.

We have more great videos on the way, so make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all things weather.

cascadia subduction zone, cascadia earthquake, natural disasters, north american plate, cascadia subduction zone earthquake, cascadia subduction zone leak, cascadia subduction zone fault, cascadia subduction zone hole, west, earthquakes, cascadia fault line earthquake, cascadia fault line, cascadia fault earthquake, cascadia fault hole, cascadia fault news, cascadia fault zone, cascadia fault leaking, cascadia fault