Page 7 - Subduction Zone News Today

Meteorologist chad myers. chad? >> you need to be impressed at how much force water has. >> yeah. >> i also think you need to be impressed at how much force it must take to move that water in the first place. that happens with an earthquake under water. you have a subduction zone or area of the crust going below another area of the crust. we call it a fault. all of a sudden that fault decides to release. that releasing motion, moving earth, that earthquake because its underground, moves the wate...

Main fault that are shaking. everything yesterday was offshore in the subduction zone where one plate is going under another plate way off in the ocean. nagano, way out here. >> does it have a different epicenter? if its related, does it have the same epicenter? im a little confused -- >> it very well could be a separate quake, completely separate quake, but probably triggered by an 8.9, less than 200 miles away. when things shake, other seams that maybe would have taken two more weeks to move, ...

Earthquakes in that area. >> kate, explain to all of us how japan is situated along three different faults. >> the plate situation is fairly complicated there. the bottom line is its a subdukz zone where the plate is sliding under japan and this type of situation is where all of the greatest earthquakes around the world occur in subdukz-zoned areas. the largest faults are available and it take a very large fault to produce a very large earthquake. >> how does it compare to the california coastli...

Earthquake moved. actually shifted. >> yes, by as much as ten feet. ten feet. i mean, right. how far away is that? it is huge actually. you know, conception yon which had the worst of the damage overall is the city that moved the farthest, and santiago over here, and even buenos aires moved a half an inch or so, and the reason is because of the type of earthquake that happened. this is the plate here, and this is the south american plate here, and this is the subduction zone. >> that is where th...

How big of a concern is that? >> thats a big concern not just in california but worldwide. engineers, of course, know a lot more about earthquakes and the way to build strong buildings. any building thats constructed prior to the imposition of building codes can be very weak. thats a major concern. >> lets move up to coast to seattle. how is seattle prepared and whats the likelihood of something there? >> the last major earthquake along the coast of washington and oregon occurred around 1700. th...

There are two plate boundaries here. this is a small plate thats moving below washington and oregon. and its moving along this trench. this is called a subduction zone and causes volcanos in the cascade range and earthquakes along the coast. >> this looks relatively far away from seattle. should people take comfort in it that its not right there? >> it is relatively far away from seattle. there wont be that much shaking, perhaps, or the shaking will be somewhat attenuated. the problem here might...

California past oregon, washington into british columbia that is a subduction zone where the plates are colliding together. there is the potential for an 8.5 or 9 earthquake there that would cause substantial shaking and a tsunami. so, of course, in that part of the country we need to prepare for large amounts of shaking and prepare the coast to warn the citizens in case a wave would be coming in the future. >> i notice thats not just the west coast with danger areas. >> thats right. there is se...

Study from university of california at davis found quake that sparked 2004 tsunami may have contributed to other earthquakes in california. we are joined by seismologist from the california of davis. everybody is scared right now when they think about the earthquake and mudslides and flooding and the mother nature-related events. makes you wonder if it happened in chichile, could an earthquake of that manage any tuesday happen in the u.s. -- magnitude happen in the u.s.? >> it wouldnt because we...

Lets make this 800 times more powerful than the haitian earthquake. thats what happened last night under the water. very close to the coast of chile. and why does it matter that it was very close? well, its part of where this subduction zone is. we talk about the trench thats offshore. we talk about one plate. these plates that are all moving around the earth and have been for millions of years. this plate shifted underneath the land, underneath the water and the water budged out. as the water b...

Perhaps minutes away from the islands of hawaii being hit by dangerous waves spawned by a tsunami and all that triggered by that earthquake, in the weather center, you, too have been watching the images coming out of hawaii. extraordinary images coming out of chile. xpleet polar opposites here but theyre related. >> yeah, absolutely. its the action with the earthquake, actually, that causes the tsunami to happen. this is a subduction zone off the coast of chile. it lifts up the crust of the eart...