PACIFIC NORTHWEST – 324 years ago on January 26th, a massive earthquake rocked the Oregon coast. The 9.1 Cascadia earthquake wreaked havoc on the Oregon coast in the year 1700.
Emeritus Professor of Geology and Environmental Science, Eric Dittmer says the 600-mile Cascadia fault line is expected to repeat this type of seismic activity near the future.
Dittmer explains how seismologists determined an occurrence interval for the Cascadia fault of between 250 and 450 years apart. The collision of tectonic plates in the ‘Ring of Fire’ subduction zones, Dittmer says, are a cause for some of the largest quakes.
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