Skywatch Media News for March the 19th 2020 in today's society there are many
threats sweeping the globe that must be addressed because they involve our
safety and security one of the big concerns lies within the Cascadia fault
zone where seismic activity is indicative of something major taking
place now we don't know when this threat will hit but when it does we need to be
ready imagine if you may what must have been in the minds of coastal residents
some 320 years ago late in the evening of January the 26th in the year 1700
when residents who had settled into bed for the evening were suddenly awakened
when the ground began to shake as the primary waves suddenly arrived the
ground began to compress and expand and dogs began to nervously bark but the
first wave was more subtle because of its quick movement but then as the
secondary wave arrived the earthquake became more unmistakable the shaking had
become much stronger across the villages the entire fault along the Cascadia
subduction zone between Northern California and Vancouver Island ruptured
generating immense seismic waves as the fault unleashed its fury
for 3 to 6 excruciating minutes
a significant portion of the rupture occurred on the shallowest portion of
the fault ended up lifting the seafloor and the entire column of water above it
this gray column of water then collapsed producing a series of tsunami waves that
would batter the coastline through the night and across the Pacific Basin
although people west of the Cascades found themselves to be in a precarious
situation by the violent shaking it was the wall of water that caused the brunt
of the calamity that evening when villages were overtaken by tsunami
generated floods
if you can picture what took place back in the year 1700 along the Washington
coast then you may get a better understanding of what a Cascadia
megathrust could do along the Pacific Northwest and what the odds of a repeat
may be in the decades of the 1980s scientists discovered significant
evidence of immense earthquakes in the Cascadia region researchers from Caltech
University published a paper that asserts that the Cascadia region is
actively deforming which portends that the zone is likely to produce a
tremendous earthquake another finding published in 1987 provided the geologic
evidence to support Cal Tech's findings regarding land level deformation along
the coast and evidence of widespread tsunami inundation following these great
earthquakes of the past these scientists continued to work out the details of the
earthquake of 1700 including magnitude, shaking levels, tsunami inundation and the
frequency of earthquakes in the region of the past 10,000 years these results
had indicated that submarine landslide deposits along the Cascadia margin had a
reoccurrence rate of about 500 years in some instances especially along the
Oregon coast the reoccurrence rate was much less their analysis was so precise
that the study of earthquakes in other subduction zones around the world
provide the exact date of the earthquake of 1709 p.m. local time on January the
26th based on written records of the orphan tsunami of 1700 in Japan because
there hasn't been any evidence of another tsunami in the Cascadia region
since the Year 1700 this means that the fault has been building up pressure for
the past three hundred and twenty years which must eventually be unleashed now I
am NOT in the earthquake prediction business and neither should you but the
odds of another big one in this region in the next 50 years range from about 1
in 3 for a magnitude 8 in Southern Oregon to about 1 in 8 for a magnitude 9
which would span the entire subduction zone there are other subduction
earthquakes in the past 20 years that can be utilized for study purposes the
most serious of these earthquakes include the magnitude 9.1 Samatra
earthquake and Indian Ocean tsunami of the year 2004 which severely affected 16
nations other great events to consider would be the magnitude 8.8 earthquake in
Chile in the year 2010 and the 9.1 magnitude earthquake and subsequent
tsunami that occurred in Japan in the year 2011 one of the biggest
consequences of the Japanese disaster was the nuclear meltdown of the
Fukushima power plant which even to this day is conducting a desperate attempt to
contain radioactive and chemical pollution and to remove spent fuel rods
the cost of their futile efforts has been in the hundreds of billions of
dollars there are many lessons that we can learn from these great earthquakes
around the world as well as some surprises that will emerge with each
reoccurrence but despite the various earthquake
effects there are several conclusions that can be made regarding the Cascadia
subduction zone as well as various expectations in a region that is locked
loaded and ready for action here are some things that we need to
consider first off the emergency response will be slow especially in
coastal in rural areas simply because of ground and structural damage
along with tsunami flooding but everyone needs to become
self-sufficient with respect to food water and medicine and this would be
for weeks not just for days prior to our current
situation most family households had less than three days worth of emergency
supplies on hand so being prepared is essential regardless of the situation
because there is a lack of tsunami safe evacuation options along coastal
areas where residents and visitors are present there must be an effort to
greatly improve the ability to educate the public on evacuation procedures in
order for a successful recovery to occur it is essential for water power fuel and
transportation systems to be functioning properly
when critical lifelines are disrupted the ability of your hospitals and first
responders to act accordingly will be severely hampered finally community
planning initiatives must be implemented in order to establish vertical
evacuation alternatives otherwise we are running around like chicken little with
absolutely no idea of what to do next in 2019 FEMA and the Pacific Northwest
seismic network stepped in to establish certain procedures for vertical
evacuation one of the goals was to double the number of seismic instruments
in the region in conjunction with early warning systems that went live back in
April of 2017 the expectation is that this shake alert would provide people
in coastal communities with up to a few minutes of advance warning depending on
their actual closeness to the epicenter of the quake public wireless emergency
alerts and cellphone applications are also in development for
of Washington and Oregon these warning systems will help people to get to a
safe place where they can hopefully ride out the earthquake right now they are
developing a series of symposiums on earthquake resilience and ways to bounce
back from a horrendous disaster there are presently thousands of unreinforced
masonry and concrete structures located in cities such as Seattle Tacoma and
Portland and many more are likely to suffer significant damage during the
next Cascadia earthquake in addition there are hundreds of schools that do
not meet the engineering requirements for safety unfortunately more investment
is needed from both state and local resources in order to meet the minimum
safety requirements at this moment such an undertaking may have to be placed on
the back burner considering the more important
priorities not only facing these particular states but the nation as a
whole even so there are a few projects that could be underway before the end of
this decade that would greatly improve this region's ability to recover from an
earthquake disaster what is important at this particular time is the ability to
provide for future generations the tools of preparedness not just for the Pacific
Northwest but for all regions of the US and beyond in times of darkness it is
essential that we work as one team for the benefit of all this requires great
sacrifice from each and every person from the privileged to the least of us
we are all in this together for it is the desire and the willingness to help
one another in times of despair that will lift our spirits and lead us out of
the darkness and into the light thanks for watching