Monster Earthquake Targeting Portland, Seattle May Come From Fluid Leak In Ocean

A new study indicates that fluid that acts like a lubricant on a fault off the northwestern coast of the United is leaking, and the resulting stress on the fault could cause a gigantic megathrust earthquake that could target Seattle and Portland.

A team from the University of Washington aboard the RV Thomas G. Thompson found warm fluid erupting from the seafloor roughly 50 miles out to sea from Newport, Oregon. That fluid apparently lubricates the Cascadia Subduction Zone — the 600-mile long offshore fault stretching from Vancouver Island to Northern California — that could erupt in a massive magnitude-9 earthquake.

“They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose. That’s something that I’ve never seen, and to my knowledge has not been observed before,” co-author and UW associate professor of oceanography Evan Solomon stated.

“The seep fluid chemistry is unique for Cascadia and includes extreme enrichment of boron and lithium and depletion of chloride, potassium, and magnesium,” the study reports.

The leaks of fluid, according to Solomon, are found near vertical faults where the oceanic and continental plates meet. The resultant lack of fluid rachets up the friction between the plates.

“The megathrust fault zone is like an air hockey table,” Solomon said. “If the fluid pressure is high, it’s like the air is turned on, meaning there’s less friction and the two plates can slip. If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will lock – that’s when stress can build up.”

The Cascadia Subduction Zone separates the Juan de Fuca and North America plates. The Juan de Fuca plate is pushed under the North American plate. Up to depths of 19 feet, the Cascadia zone is locked while stress builds up until the fault’s frictional strength is exceeded and a huge earthquake occurs.

A megathrust earthquake of magnitude 9.0 would release 1,000 times more energy than a magnitude 7.0 and 1 million times more energy than a magnitude 5.0.

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The last major magnitude earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone occurred on January 26, 1700.

“The amount of devastation is going to be unbelievable,” Rob Witter, coastal geologist with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, has said of a megathrust earthquake. “People aren’t going to be ready for this. Even if they are prepared, they are going to be surprised by the level of devastation.”