Page 13 - Subduction Zone News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 it's underground, moves the water. that moving water spreads out like you throw a big stone in the ocean. that stone, that wave act...

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 it's related, does it have the same epicenter? i'm 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, other faults can move because it's been shaken by the 8.9. that's not that far away. and we just t...

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 it's 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 coastline? >> southern california does not have a subduction zone. the san andreas and related faults, we ...

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 they -- >> this is is where the two of them come together. this is sinking right down into the magna, ...

How big of a concern is that? >> that's 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 that's constructed prior to the imposition of building codes can be very weak. that's a major concern. >> let's move up to coast to seattle. how is seattle prepared and what's the likelihood of something there? >> the last major earthquake along the coast of washington and oregon occurred around 1700. that was very large. much like the earthquake that occurred in chile. it produced a tsunami. in r...