The “big quake” could trigger a larger quake along the West Coast

The “big one” could trigger a larger earthquake along the West Coast

Most of us have probably heard that when it comes to earthquakes, a “big one” can happen at any time, but a new study has now found that if a “big one” were to occur in the Pacific Northwest, it could trigger a larger quake and affect cities up and down the West Coast.

SEATTLE – Most of us have probably heard that when it comes to earthquakes, a “big one” can happen at any time, but a new study has now found that if a “big one” occurred in the Pacific Northwest, it could trigger a larger quake and affect cities up and down the West Coast.

Backstory:

In 2001, the 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake destroyed parts of buildings, injured 400 people, and caused widespread damage worth billions of dollars. This earthquake is a stark reminder that another earthquake like this, and perhaps a larger one, still looms on the horizon.

“This is basically certain, and how we respond to it is the only part that is uncertain,” said Dr. Chris Goldfinger, a geologist, lead author and principal investigator of the 2025 study.

What they say:

That study found that if a large earthquake occurred in the Cascadia subduction zone, it would cause the San Andreas fault to rupture a short time later.

“We discovered that earthquake deposits near where the two faults meet at Cape Mendocino were essentially stacked on top of each other, with seemingly no time passing between the two events,” Goldfinger said.

He shared a video with FOX 13 showing a sequence of Cascadia earthquakes from the past 10,000 years. It also shows the occurrence of San Andreas earthquakes. It's not a matter of if a big event will happen, but when, he told FOX 13.

So, what is considered a major earthquake?

“If you want to think of it as T-shirt sizes, from very large sizes, which might be 9.1 or 9.2, that's where we think the limit is, all the way up to 7-magnitude earthquakes,” Goldfinger said.

He explained that these earthquakes will affect the cities of Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and San Francisco located up and down the coast.

Local perspective:

These results come with the major earthquake occurring on Thursday, October 16. It's a time when millions of people around the world practice earthquake drills at work, school and home.

Despite such exercises, Goldfinger says we are still unprepared because many of these areas are built on time bombs.

“We have very fragile infrastructure in most of our towns and cities,” Goldfinger said. “So, we have a lot of unreinforced masonry buildings, liftable concrete buildings that collapse in earthquakes and things like that, and the progress on replacing and retrofitting them is very, very slow, and, you know, that's a long-term, expensive process.”

In the meantime, he told FOX 13 there are some things people can do now to prepare their homes for an earthquake. For example, if you have a gas hot water heater, make sure it is secured so it doesn't tip over and break the gas line, which could cause a fire during an earthquake.

“Walk around your house and start thinking, ‘What would my house look like in the event of an earthquake?’” Goldfinger said. He also recommends clearing out tall, heavy items in your home that could tip over, and making sure your home is anchored to the foundation, because there are a lot of older homes that aren't.

“You don't want your house to slide off the foundation during an earthquake, as that could potentially destroy it completely,” he said.

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Source: Information in this story comes from a research article published via GeoScienceWorld, and original FOX 13 reporting and interviews in Seattle.

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