Sea Floor Feature Cascadia Subduction Zone

The san andreas fault in southern california gets more headlines but the cascadia subduction zone is a much larger threat by far.

Sea floor feature cascadia subduction zone.

Juan de fuca subducts or flows under the continental plate about 60 miles off the coast running from northern california to british columbia. Horning a geologist for over 30 years and a seaside city councilor believes that day will come when the cascadia subduction zone a fault about 70 miles offshore ruptures in a catastrophic. The cascadia subduction zone lies offshore of the pacific northwest and northern california. The pacific northwest is an exciting place to observe geologic processes in action.

Cross section through cascadia subduction zone showing subdivision into a zone of stable sliding closest to the trench the locked zone subject to great earthquakes the zone of episodic tremor and slip possibly related to high fluid pressure epicenters in fig. The cascadia fault is what is known as a subduction zone. This fault zone is where the juan de fuca plate meets the north american plate and it stretches approximately 700 miles from northern vancouver island all the way down to northern california. It happens because the ocean floor is made up of crustal plates.

The probable explanation lies in the rate of convergence between the juan de fuca and north american. National park service sites in the coastal ranges of washington oregon and northern california contain rugged mountains of rocks that were manufactured in the ocean then scraped off the plate and lifted out of the sea. I guess i m on a plate tectonics kick the last few sea floor sundays have shown bathymetric sea floor topography images at a scale where big. The cascadia subduction zone is where two plates the north american continental plate and the juan de fuca oceanic plate meet.

Subduction exists around the pacific rim and other parts of the globe. The story by kathryn schulz titled the really big one reminded some about and introduced many more to the cascadia subduction zone csz a geological hotspot that rivals the famous.