southern whidbey island fault map southern whidbey island fault map

One model suggests it extends to about 30 miles east of Yakima. Emergency Management Hazard Maps - Island County, Washington The shaking usually lasts less than a minute and doesnt generally cause a tsunami or have many aftershocks. These maps are created by small planes that use a specific type of laser to measure the elevation of the ground. Washington has the second highest risk in the U.S. of these large and damaging earthquakes because of its geologic setting. Buildings could sustain extensive damage. The spectacular falls flow over the remains of a newly discovered 20-million-year-old volcano, apparently formed atop the main part of the fault zone as magma rose upward along weak fault planes. An earthquake along the southern Whidbey Island fault reshaped the land some 2,700 years ago. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Why is Strange Sounds focusing so much on disaster preps? Everything points to one thing, Sherrod said, waving his hand across the inland sea. Finding Concealed Active Faults: Extending the Southern Whidbey Island Faults can be grouped based on their relative movement into three types. These cookies do not store any personal information. People who look for evidence of past movement on faults are usually called paleoseismologists (from paleo-ancient and seismologist-one who studies earthquakes). Customers lift their eyes from phone screens. Southeast Extension of the Southern Whidbey Island Fault, Washington: Implications for Earthquake Hazards, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 12: Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). Know what other hazards you might face. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This photo shows a fence that was offset about 8.5 feet during the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Sherrods son has since completed graduate school in applied geosciences. What we know about this fault is that its ruptured may times in the pastit will happen again. Aftershocks can be nearly as large as the main earthquake and can cause significant additional damage. Plate Tectonics | Pacific Northwest Seismic Network Tsunami waves can travel over 500 miles per hour in the open ocean. Sherrod says practically every place they. This new method allows geologists to see through trees and vegetation to find new faults. Oblique convergence and clockwise rotation along the continental margin are the inferred driving forces for ongoing deformation. (360) 678-5111 For earthquakes that occurred before seismographs were invented, the Mercalli Intensity scale was used to make maps of damage and determine the size and location of an earthquake. Also check out Ear to the Ground, published by the Department of Natural Resources. The southeastern and central parts of the southern Whidbey Island fault zone form the southwest margin of the Everett basin and northeast boundary of the Seattle basin. Beef Barley and French Onion trenches cross the Little Bear Creek lineament. The tsunami becomes taller as the ocean becomes shallow. In Seattle, the quake damaged buildings, weakened bridges, started fires and opened cracks in the earth. Know what to expect. Both of these things can cause equal or greater damage than the actual earthquake. Hundreds could die, with thousands more injured. For example, it is unlikely that you will be able to use electricity, cell phones, or the internet. Depending on the type of fault, the ground can move laterally, vertically, or a combination of both. Large and damaging earthquakes are inevitable in Washington, but no one knows exactly when they will happen. There must be tsunami deposits of the same age along much of the Oregon and Washington coast in order to qualify as an earthquake. Within this rich oral history there are many references to events like earthquakes and tsunamis. A community meeting about a shelter at the Harbor Inn may have yielded more questions than answers. Why you should be prepared: 3 big earthquake threats in PNW The map also shows potentially active faults from a separate 2014 report (click here to download). Over time, fault movement has created some interesting geologic features. What makes these faults mega is that the amount of energy released is hundreds to thousands of times more than almost any other type of fault. Most faults are considered active if they have evidence for movement (this includes earthquakes) within the past 12,000 years (the Holocene time period). In 2017, he began studying the possible aftermath of a major SWIF quake. Small normal faults are found along the top of folds in eastern Washington in the Saddle Mountain graben. Black lines are trace projections of the South Whidbey Island Fault, Seattle Fault Zone, and Tacoma Fault Zone faults and the N-S Hood Canal and Puget Sound faults of S. Y. Johnson et al. Stratigraphy and diatom assemblages of the marsh cores suggest Crockett Marsh underwent a 12 m of abrupt uplift relative to sea level at a time that relative sea level remained the same at Hancock Marsh. PDF Modeling a Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake on the Western Section of the Since the last ice age, the southern Whidbey Island fault zone has probably spawned several highly destructive shallow earthquakes. Excavations across several LiDAR scarps show evidence for multiple post-glacial folding and faulting event on faults with reverse oblique sense of slip. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan occurred on this type of fault and released enough energy to slightly change the Earths axis of rotation. from Whidbey Island to Vancouver Island (Figure 1). The team determined that the Rattlesnake Mountain fault zone, originally mapped by DNR geologist Tim Walsh in the 1980s, is likely the southern continuation of the southern Whidbey Island fault, extending this fault zone from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Rattlesnake Mountain near North Bend. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. People stagger into the streets to avoid an avalanche of debris. In the area of North Bend, the fault zone is 4 miles wide and consists of a series of parallel faults. HomePrograms and ServicesGeologyGeologic Hazards. This map is from a 2007 report on the seismic design categories in Washington. Below you will find links to view and download hazard maps created for each jurisdiction included in the current mitigation planning process. Strait of Juan de Fuca Fault Map The Puget Sound faults under the highly populated Seattle and Puget Sound region of Washington state form a regional network of interrelated seismologic geologic faults. Before modern record keeping, Native Americans lived in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. If folding on the Little Bear Creek lineament resulted in one or two of unconformities, the poorly constrained timing of the earthquakes is younger than 12,000 yr BP and older than about 2,850 cal yr BP. The tsunamis can travel far inland and deposit layers of sand and organic material. The most recent hit roughly 2,700 years ago. This scenario was modeled on the part of the SWIF from Woodinville to just west of Whidbey Island. South Whidbey Island Fault Earthquake Scenario: 7.4 Magnitude Buildings Damaged: 320,776 Fatalities: 90 - 432 Injuries: 2,920 - 7,361 Economic Loss: $15,590,000,000 SeaTac Fault Earthquake Scenario: 7.2 Magnitude Buildings Damaged: 375,954 Fatalities: 16 - 123 Injuries: 1,394 - 3,404 Economic Loss: $13,400,000,000 Tacoma Fault The southern Whidbey Island fault, and several others, were exposed for the first time from a camouflage of forest, ocean and glacial sediment. Do you know what to do if there is an earthquake? Sherrod shrugged his shoulders. If everyone tries to use their cell phones, it can overload the system. Each year we map additional areas and learn more about existing faults and (or) discover new ones. This means that when the Seattle fault ruptures the south side of the fault moves up relative to the north side. SWIF ranges from 12 miles underground at its deepest to right at sea level in a few scattered spots, like Cama Beach, Holmes Harbor and Woodinville, according to Sherrods research. Visit our School Seismic Safety page for more information. Large earthquakes are likely to happen in Washington during your lifetime. Clicking on the map will download the publication. Earthquakes. His team wanted to find the rate of sea level rise along the shore. Get On The List To Receive Your Daily Dose Of Weird News And Amazing Phenomena. Quaternary Fault and Fold Database of the United States - USGS Also issued a warning for the UK that the Italian chaos could come to Britain An increase of 2 means that ~1,000 times more energy is released. Wagner and Wiley (1983 #6230) and Wagner and Tomson (1987 #6249) mapped and briefly discussed offshore parts of this fault zone and also used the name "southern Whidbey Island fault." . You have entered an incorrect email address! Geologists have used the location of these shallow, intermediate, and deep earthquakes to learn about subduction zones throughout the world. Never use a lighter or match near damaged areas. Even when the location of a fault is known, there is much additional work to determine how hazardous it may be. Emergency Management Earthquake - Island County, Washington Other types of seismic energy (S waves) also travel through the earth, but they move with a side-to-side (shearing) motion. The French Onion trench exposed glaciolacustrine claystones, till, colluvial deposits, and Holocene soils. Finding and learning about faults requires many different aspects of geology and geophysics. District Court: (800) 946-9765, South Whidbey Island Fault (SWIF) M7.4 Earthquake Scenario. The next earthquake is inevitable, but the variability makes it difficult to know exactly when. Doctor reveals the horrors Italian medics are facing in overwhelmed hospitals where dying patients are being left untreated as experts warn UK and US are just two weeks behind Italy and the public are not SCARED enough, An intensive care doctor in northern Italy has described the scale of the crisis The shaking can damage or destroy buildings and other infrastructure. This map of Puget Sound shows the location of the methane plumes (yellow and white circles) detected along the ship's path (purple). Finding faults and knowing how often they rupture is one of the most important tasks to keep society safe from these hazards. This means that the internet, your cell phone, grocery stores, and gas stations may also not work. The last major earthquake was over 300 years ago. Although we know much about active faults and earthquakes, there is much more to learn. It usually also means that there are earthquakes (even small ones) on the fault. As an example, parts of Seattle and certain areas of downtown Olympia are built on softer ground that will amplify ground shaking during an earthquake. The key, Sherrods group would discover, was buried on Whidbey Island under layers of mud, peat moss and decaying marsh grass in the murky tidal waters at Crockett Lake, alongside the Coupeville ferry dock. Seattle Fault - Wikipedia Resources on tsunami danger and preparedness in Westport, Grays Harbor County, Long Beach Peninsula, and Coastal evacuation maps. Even if the earthquake is too small to be felt by people, seismographs can detect it. Finding nothing of serious monetary value, the companies abandoned reams of information they had gathered through seismic surveys. Shallow faults produce earthquakes in the upper 18 miles (30 kilometers) of the Earths crust. ShakeMapGeologicSummaries - University of Washington The years have gone by. /L\Axc4Q/w4Ks^#, sRITgZf>,e}iI5,F_ADGc?f e@L. Scientists at the Washington Geological Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey, universities, and many private geologic consulting firms work diligently to understand how often earthquakes happen on various faults throughout Washington. Stop as quickly as safety permits and stay in the vehicle. This earthquake is along the southern Whidbey Island fault, a less-known, less-studied subterranean boundary. Surface Geology | WA - DNR In fact, new faults are found every year during our geologic mapping efforts. That could spell trouble not only for its namesake island but for south and north King County and further west. When an earthquake happens there will not be time to google what you are supposed to do. Seattle's Faults: Maps That Highlight Our Shaky Ground The marshy deposits are about a meter higher at Lake Hancock. Camano Island, WA 98282, Mailing Address If they know theres data available that could help them in any way, they want to get it. Stay inside until the shaking stops and it is safe to go outside. In addition, the Survey performs seismic safety evaluations of schools. The South Whidbey Island Fault and Darrington Devil's Mountain Fault bound the Everett Basin. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Whats up with the 50 US nuclear bombs stored at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, right on the same fault line California hasnt seen a catastrophic earthquake recently. M 7.4 Scenario Earthquake - Southern Whidbey Island fault-southern Theyre FREE CLICK HERE to subscribe, EAR TO THE GROUND WITH DNR & COMMISSIONER FRANZ, Tree Link helps you answer questions about urbantrees. Around Puget Sound, it seems everyone knows about The Big One, the potential magnitude 9.0 Cascadia Subduction Zone megaquake some scientists say is due any day. The combination of all of these effects is what makes earthquakes such a powerful geologic hazard. A reverse fault occurs when two blocks are pushed together and one moves up and over the other. The April 1949 Tacoma earthquake measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale and caused damage from southern Oregon to British Columbia. This northwest-trending fault zone extends more than 65 km across Possession Sound, southern Whidbey Island, Admiralty Inlet into the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca. Do you live or work near an area that could have liquefaction? Many faults have not been studied enough to know if they are active. Johnson, on a whim, acquired the data that would prove its existence beyond a doubt.