A new study in GSA Bulletin aims to better determine how often and where faults trigger earthquakes beneath central Seattle.
In the Pacific Northwest, major fault systems such as the Cascadian subduction zone offshore tend to receive most of the attention. However, smaller fault systems can also present serious risks, and a new study in the journal GSA Bulletin examines the behavior of a complex fault network located directly beneath Seattle.
“My job as a paleoseismologist,” says Dr. Stephen Angster, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Science Center in Seattle and lead author of the new study, “is to figure out when and how often these local faults rupture, which would help us predict roughly when we come in the window of the next potential rupture.”…