{"id":35637,"date":"2025-10-12T09:01:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=35637"},"modified":"2025-10-14T20:24:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:24:29","slug":"really-big-cascadia-earthquake-could-trigger-san-andreas-fault-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=35637","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Really Big\u2019 Cascadia Earthquake Could Trigger San Andreas Fault Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The disaster caused by a predicted large earthquake in the Pacific Northwest could be compounded by shaking along the San Andreas fault in California, scientists warned.<\/p>\n

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In the world\u2019s tectonic nightmares, a giant earthquake on the San Andreas fault in California looms large. But farther north, another geologic fault \u2014 the Cascadia subduction zone \u2014 gives disaster planners even more to worry about. The possibility that Cascadia could shake the Northwest in the near future was highlighted in a 2015 New Yorker article<\/a> that called the hypothetical event \u201cThe Really Big One.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a study<\/a> published last month in the journal Geosphere, earthquake scientists suggest that the two faults could have an intertwined fate. Their paper suggests that Cascadia earthquakes of the recent geological past have triggered earthquakes along the San Andreas fault too.<\/p>\n

\u201cCascadia is often talked about as, \u2018When it goes, it\u2019ll be the biggest disaster in North American history,\u2019\u201d said Chris Goldfinger, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University whose earlier warnings were highlighted in that New Yorker article. \u201cBut what if the San Andreas goes at the same time? It\u2019s still going to be the biggest disaster in North American history, but it\u2019s quite a bit bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cascadia subduction zone stretches from Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California. In this region, an oceanic plate called Juan de Fuca dives beneath the continental plate of North America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s where there\u2019s a lot of frictional contact that the trouble for people arises,\u201d Dr. Goldfinger said.<\/p>\n

With the new paper, he and colleagues have found evidence that the friction could cause problems for people farther south, near the San Andreas fault, which begins at Cape Mendocino south of Eureka, turns inland and terminates near the Salton Sea. Cascadia and San Andreas come together near Cape Mendocino.<\/p>\n

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The disaster caused by a predicted large earthquake in the Pacific Northwest could be compounded by shaking along the San Andreas fault in California, scientists warned.In the world\u2019s tectonic nightmares, a giant earthquake on the San Andreas fault in California looms large. But farther north, another geologic fault \u2014 the Cascadia subduction zone \u2014 gives disaster planners even more to worry about. The possibility that Cascadia could shake the Northwest in the near future was highlighted in a 2015 New Yorker article that called the hypothetical event \u201cThe Really Big One.\u201dIn a study published last month in the journal Geosphere, earthquake scientists suggest that the two faults could have an intertwined fate. Their paper suggests that Cascadia earthquakes of the recent geological past have triggered earthquakes along the San Andreas fault too.\u201cCascadia is often talked about as, \u2018When it goes, it\u2019ll be the biggest disaster in North American history,\u2019\u201d said Chris Goldfinger, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University whose earlier warnings were highlighted in that New Yorker article. \u201cBut what if the San Andreas goes at the same time? It\u2019s still going to be the biggest disaster in North American history, but it\u2019s quite a bit bigger.\u201dThe Cascadia subduction zone stretches from Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California. In this region, an oceanic plate called Juan de Fuca dives beneath the continental plate of North America.\u201cIt\u2019s where there\u2019s a lot of frictional contact that the trouble for people arises,\u201d Dr. Goldfinger said.With the new paper, he and colleagues have found evidence that the friction could cause problems for people farther south, near the San Andreas fault, which begins at Cape Mendocino south of Eureka, turns inland and terminates near the Salton Sea. Cascadia and San Andreas come together near Cape Mendocino.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35639,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35640,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35637\/revisions\/35640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}