Description
A new map released by the United States Geological Survey shows the likelihood of an earthquake causing damaging shaking in the next century.
"The area around Puget Sound is really a bullseye of seismic hazard - really for the Pacific Northwest," said Harold Tobin with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. "Second only to California really. We have high numbers of people at risk of earthquakes in our areas."
Tobin has spent decades working to understand subduction zone earthquakes. He said this map tracks with past research, but includes updated information using new tools and the "latest and greatest" data from hundreds of scientists.
"The hazard has gone up a bit in the estimation of the USGS because we know more about that seismic wave propagation," Tobin said. "That really comes from computer models and simulations, and it's ground-truthed to the smaller earthquakes, where we can scale up what's going to happen when a big one takes place."
Read more: https://www.king5.com/article/weather/earthquakes/new-models-damaging-earthquake-shaking/281-2da25fe3-c4b9-47fb-85a2-759c8eafc4ce