Study shows high-magnitude temblor in north-west could set off another in California, causing unrivaled disaster
Warnings about the looming threat of “the big one” – a catastrophic earthquake that could devastate cities – have stoked fears across the US west coast for decades. But according to a new study, a high-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific north-west could set off a secondary one on California’s San Andreas fault, causing an unrivaled catastrophe.
“The bigger one” would have the potential to wreak havoc up and down the coast at once, researchers say.
“We could expect that an earthquake on one of the faults alone would draw down the resources of the whole country to respond to it,” said lead author Dr Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist and geophysicist. “If they both went off together, then you’ve got potentially San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver all in an emergency situation in a compressed timeframe.”
The Cascadia subduction zone, which can produce magnitude 9 earthquakes on its own, has triggered temblors on the San Andreas fault in the past, according to the study, which was published on 29 September.
