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View Full Version : Seismic Faults 'Talk' to Each Other Before Earthquakes (Take a look at this fault in CA.!)


felixthecat
April 6th, 2008, 12:04 AM
Seismic Faults 'Talk' to Each Other Before Earthquakes

Friday, April 04, 2008

By Andrea Thompson

...

(They are talking about an extensive fault that extends down the Pacific coast of North America to Northern California. They believe this could trigger the San Andreas Fault. Click on the link and see the picture. It's eye opening.)

...

The study, detailed in the April issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, revealed that 13 out of 15 of the San Andreas earthquakes in the past 3,000 years occurred at almost the same time (in geological terms) as quakes along the southern portion of the Cascadia fault.

...

"It's either an amazing coincidence, or one fault triggered the other," Goldfinger said.

The Cascadia and San Andreas faults meet a third fault, the Mendocino, at a spot just off Cape Mendocino in California that Goldfinger describes as "a kind of plate tectonics oddity where three plates come together."

At this triple junction, seismologists have observed significant deformation and seismic activity.

Goldfinger told LiveScience that it's likely that whatever happens to one fault would affect the others. (domino effect)

This could happen because as an earthquake relieves stress in one part of a fault, stress can build up in other parts.

"Just like if you have a crack in a windshield, it will never get smaller; it will only get bigger," because the stress tends to concentrate on the crack, Goldfinger explained.

Click here to see the picture!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,346729,00.html

Maybe someone can post the picture of the fault.

scapegoat
April 6th, 2008, 01:05 AM
Goldfinger said.....

Goldfinger told LiveScience....

....Goldfinger explained.

:aha There's really a guy named GOLDFINGER??? :pound

Cloud Watcher
April 6th, 2008, 02:02 PM
It reminds me of the movies on the SciFi channel, 10.5 and 10.5 Apocalypse, that were rerun again last night. In the first one, the earthquakes started in Washington and continued south until the fault line opened and cut off a large portion of California from the continent. In the sequel, the earthquakes headed east until North American split in half because a fault opened up in the middle, running down to the Gulf. The scientist said it was because the plates were moving apart.

Biblenuggetlady
April 6th, 2008, 03:57 PM
History Channel has a show running today and tomorrow, I think it's called Mega Disasters, it talks about the risk CA faces for a major quake. Discovery CH is having a bunch of shows on Egypt on throughout today.... :popcorn2

dramama
April 6th, 2008, 04:07 PM
there have been lots of earthquakes off the coast of oregon lately (the cascadia subduction zone)....they are definately "talking"!