Geologists have modeled the earthquake with magnitude of 9.0 in North America. Hardest hit Seattle
Geologists from the United States modeled a powerful earthquake of magnitude 9.0, which occurred in 1700, on the West coast of North America and is likely to happen again.
It turned out that in case of recurrence of such an earthquake can lead to extremely serious consequences for cities close to the coast, particularly Seattle. The results of a study presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Seattle. Briefly about the results of the press release of the University of Washington.
January 26, 1700 on the West coast of North America, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 to 9.3. Since moving to the West coast of the United States began only in the late eighteenth century, accurate information about the earthquake there, and the main source of data is the registration of the tsunami in Japan. Also to confirm information about the earthquake we used the data of dendrochronology and analysis of the folklore of the indigenous population of America.
Source of magazinstrasse similar to this, is the collision of tectonic plates in subduction zones. Such events happen very rarely, but their magnitude is often more than 9,0. In the case of the earthquake of 1700 was the source of the movement of the lithospheric plate of Juan de Fuca in Askadskii subduction zone.
Scientists estimate that the frequency of such events in this region is about 500 years, so a powerful earthquake could be repeated in the near future.
To clarify the mechanism of the earthquake, improving the accuracy of forecasting and evaluation of possible consequences for a modern big cities on the West coast of Canada and the United States, a group of American geologists conducted a computer simulation of earthquakes caused by the movement of the lithospheric plate of Juan de Fuca.