Two of the world's largest fault lines were synchronized together

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Researchers have discovered evidence of “partial synchronization” of two of the world's most famous fault lines – the northern San Andreas fault and the Cascadia subduction zone. The relationship between the two locations means that an earthquake in one area can trigger an earthquake in another area in a phenomenon called “stress excitation.” region or vice versa.

Researchers hoping to unravel the movement of earthquakes on the West Coast of North America have discovered a disturbing fact: Two of the world's largest fault lines sometimes work together. History, it turns out, shows that an earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone or the San Andreas fault can trigger an earthquake in the other.

In a new study published in the journal Geosphere, researchers from Oregon State University — led by Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist and geophysicist — show evidence of so-called “partial synchronization” of the northern San Andreas Fault and Cascadia Subduction Zone. Partial synchrony essentially means that an earthquake event in one region has a history of triggering events in another region, and historical evidence of “significant interaction” between the two (and the potential for more to come) should be taken as a warning.

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The primary evidence for this relationship comes from the sea floor. The team extracted 130 sediment samples (dating back 3,100 years) from the Mendocino Triple Junction – where the Juan de Fuca Plate in the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the Gorda Plate (underneath the North American Plate) meet the San Andreas Fault off the coast of Northern California. There, the sedimentary layers showed unusual turbidite movement (layers formed by marine landslides that move the ocean floor), which is often a telltale sign of an earthquake.

A typical turbidite is characterized by coarse sediments at the bottom with fine silt deposits at the top. However, at the Mendocino triple junction, this structure is flipped over and “looked out.”[ed] “It should be upside down with all the sand on top. As far as we know, gravity hasn't changed,” Goldfinger told Scientific American.

This likely means that these unique turbidite formations were overlaid by two earthquakes, one from each region, in rapid succession – within a matter of years or even minutes. The study shows that eight of the turbidites have “significant temporal overlap” between the Cascadia subduction zone and the San Andreas fault, and that the last major synchronous seismic event occurred around the year 1700.

Goldfinger compared the situation to tuning a radio to divert incoming signals. “When you tune an old radio, you basically cause one oscillator to vibrate at the same frequency as the other oscillator,” he said. “When these faults coincide, one fault can set the other on hold and cause earthquakes in pairs.”

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However, just because it has been more than 300 years since the last double quake does not eliminate future possibilities. “We can expect that an earthquake on one fault alone would exhaust the entire country's resources to respond,” Goldfinger told The Guardian. “If they both took off together, you'd probably have San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. [B.C.] All in an emergency and within a compressed time frame.

While there were only eight major events, evidence showed that the two regions were so closely connected that near-simultaneous earthquakes were not very rare as a rule.

“In the paper we stuck to the geology rather than delving into the potential doom and gloom,” Goldfinger said. “But it's very clear that if something like this happens — and we think the evidence for it is strong — we have to be prepared.”

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Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews included encounters with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.

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