PNW earthquake

[Johnny L.A.]

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that seismologists were predicting a large earthquake in the PNW, specifically around Southern British Columbia. He said that the seismologists had been tracking earthquakes along a fault line and that the quake is expected 'soon'.

Now, as a native Southern Californian I know that earthquakes happen all of the time. Most are too small to feel. Most of the rest are minor. A few cause damage. Predicting earthquakes anywhere on the Ring of Fire is like predicting the weather. You know it's going to rain, but you may be off on the timeframe. And, speaking of the timeframe, specific earthquake predictions have been notoriously unreliable.

So was there in fact a study that predicted a large earthquake in the PNW within a certain timeframe in the near future?

[Quiddity Glomfuster]

The PNW was undergoing another period of Episodic Tremor and Slip (http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/pprs/research/ETS_e.php) in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Apparently, since the plates are already in motion during those phases, scientists think it would be slightly more likely that The Big One that we're overdue for may happen during one of the ETS periods. Then they said it still was a pretty small possibility that The Big One will happen any day now.

I do start wondering when, for instance, smaller quakes and tremors start happening on this side of N.A. as they have been the last while. The theory I've read is that when The Big One does happen, it will be a 9 :eek:

[Squink]

So was there in fact a study that predicted a large earthquake in the PNW within a certain timeframe in the near future?
Feb 8, 2007: Earthquake-detection center puts British Columbia on high alert (http://newszine.jou.ufl.edu/index.php?id=895)

[Duckster]

You are probably most familiar with Southern California earthquakes that come and go, over in a few seconds to a few minutes. They make the news with video cameras in stores, banks, gas stations, etc., recording the action for all to see. Of course, there are the microquakes occurring all the time you can't feel.

As pointed out in the link by Quiddity, the Pacific Northwest, or more accurately the Cascadia Subduction Zone has slow earthquakes that can last for months and extend the length of an entire fault line. There are also the really big quakes, perhaps every 500 years or so as pointed out in the article.