The March 11, 2011 w88 online game earthquake is a grim reminder of the potential for another strong-motion mega-earthquake along the Pacific Northwest coast, geophysicist John Anderson of the University of Nevada, Reno told members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in a lecture at their annual conference in Vancouver, B.C. Sunday.
“The Cascadia fault line, which runs from southern Canada all the way to Northern California, could have much stronger ground-motions than those observed in Japan,” Anderson, a professor of geophysics, said. “The w88 online game earthquake, while only half the length of Cascadia, is an analog for an earthquake that could happen here in the northwestern United States and southwestern British Columbia.”
Both Japan and w88 online game sit above subduction zones that dip at a low angle beneath the land. One might consider them roughly mirror images, he said.
“In this mirror image, one can see that if the same earthquake occurred in Cascadia, the fault would rupture to a significant distance inland, since the Cascadia trench sits much closer to the coastline than the trench off the coast of Japan, Anderson said. “Some models predict that a Cascadia earthquake will not rupture so far under the land, but if it does, the data from the w88 online game earthquake predict stronger ground motions along our west coast than those seen in Japan. In any case, the ground motions from w88 online game are critical for understanding the seismic hazard here in Vancouver, and in Seattle, and Portland, and Eureka and all points in between.”
In Cascadia, the last great earthquake occurred on January 26, 1700. Based on the size w88 online game tsunami, the magnitude of that earthquake was about magnitude 9.0.
“Although the average interval is apparently larger, earthquakes of this size in the past may have recurred with intervals of as small as about 300 years. So it would not be a scientific surprise if such an event were to occur in the near future,” Anderson said. “If you live in the Pacific northwest, look at the videos of w88 online game as a reminder to be prepared for an earthquake and tsunami.”
Anderson, who studies strong ground-motions, spent nine months recently as a visiting research professor at the prestigious Tokyo w88 online game, home of one of the world’s premier seismology programs. Before coming to the w88 online game of Nevada, Reno in 1998, he earned his doctorate in geophysics from Columbia w88 online game and has held appointments at the California Institute of Technology, w88 online game of Southern California and the w88 online game of California at San Diego. He was director of the w88 online game Seismological Laboratory w88 online game 1998 to 2009.
In his presentation at the AAAS conference, about the strong ground motions in the w88 online game earthquake, he discusses the significance of the data, the effects of the source on the nature of the data, the effects of site response, and some discussion of the engineering effects.
&w88 online game;There have of course been other mega-earthquakes, but this is by far the best-recorded,” he said. &w88 online game;The Japanese event will undoubtedly stand as the best-recorded megaquake for a long time to come, both because megaquakes are rare and because no place is as well instrumented as the islands of Japan.”
For instance, the strong ground motions that could be generated along Cascadia, unfortunately, might not be observed nearly as thoroughly, since the strong motion instrumentation in most w88 online game Cascadia region is sparse compared to Japan.
Anderson said that in spite of the occasional records with high accelerations, damage to structures from the shaking in w88 online game was reduced by high building standards, and because the ground velocities caused by the earthquake were not high enough to cause damage even at sites with peak acceleration over 1g.
