Page 10 - Subduction Zone News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Of the subduction zone. it's just the way that nature works. the pacific plates are always moving. and where there's a junction between the pacific plate and land, eventually the pressure builds up and breaks. and so it's a recurring cycle. the same thing happens off of the washington-oregon coast. >> frank gonzales or noaa, thanks for joining us. now on the phone lucy jones of the u.s. geological survey. lucy, reuters is saying early reports of landslides partially blocking some roads. is that what we can expect from an 8.2 earthquake? >> they misspelled my name and didn't get the right -- >>...

Slip in this magnitude 8.2 was deeper on that subduction zone. perhaps 30 to 40 kilometers deep, rather than, you know, 10 to 20 kilometers, like we saw very large slip in japan. and so when you get that very shallow, large slip, you get a big tsunami. in terms of the hazard for -- the coast around the pacific, yes, there would be one from a large earthquake in chile, as we saw in 1960 and again in 2010. >> the thing that certainly saved lives here, we know there are six people that have been reported dead. there is a concern there will be more. but one of the reasons that it wasn't more catas...

Three days ago. this is a great quake. we did not have a great quake in california. we were down here. but let me show you that same shake map for california. we had the same colors right here because it was right under that area of los angeles. so this is the quake, it's the same shaking as they saw down here, but you have to assume that the buildings in los angeles have been retrofitted, with a little better quality structure than we have down in chile. here's what happened, here's why it's significant. this is a subduction zone. as you see they go under, go under, one doesn't want to go und...

>> yeah. this place manufactures earthquakes all the time. back in 2010, there was a large earthquake that killed more than 550 people. and it's because of the nature of the subduction zone. it's just the way that nature works. the pacific plates are always moving. and where there's a junction between the pacific plate and land, eventually the pressure builds up and breaks. and so it's a recurring cycle. the same thing happens off of the washington-oregon coast. >> frank gonzales or noaa, thanks for joining us. now on the phone lucy jones of the u.s. geological survey. lucy, reuters is saying ...

New information, we always take that information into consideration and make changes, if necessary. but right now we continue to believe that nuclear power plants in this country operate safely and securely. >> so, chad myers is back. the obvious question, we have nuclear plants, we have fault lines, and then a huge ocean, obviously. california comes to mind for me. could this happen here? >> it could. but the only real subduction zone, like the one in japan, is well into northern california, up in toward oregon. but, yes, there will be shaking around power plants. there's no question that wil...