Thursday, September 17, 2015

January 26th 1700: West Coast dropped 6.5 feet with magnitude 9 earthquake

Here’s what geologists say: The earthquake that almost certainly occurred on the night of Jan. 26, 1700, ruptured North America’s Pacific Northwest coast for hundreds of kilometers, from northern California, through Oregon and Washington, to southern Vancouver Island. Along this coast, the Juan de Fuca plate was pushing under the larger North American plate, had gotten stuck—locked—but kept pushing until it released, abruptly and violently. The earthquake that resulted was probably a magnitude 9, about as big as earthquakes get. The coast dropped by as much as 2 meters (6.5 feet), and a tsunami brought floods more than 300 meters (984 feet) inland.
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Native Americans' Terrifying Tsunami Stories Show What the Pacific ...

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