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Strong 6.0 earthquake strikes off Oregon coast
Feb 14 (Reuters) – A strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake
struck on Tuesday roughly 160 miles off the coast of Oregon, the
U.S. Geological Survey said.
The quake struck at 7:31 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 6.2
miles in the Pacific Ocean 159 miles west of Coos Bay, Oregon.
It was felt as far away as San Francisco, California, according
to the USGS.
A spokesman for the Portland police said he did not feel the
quake. There were immediate reports of damage or injuries.
No tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center.
Pacific Northwest grinds to halt as twin snowstorms batter region
Howling winter weather hit the northwest of the country as four central states on reported tornadoes, the National Weather Service said.
A cold front combined with a warm and humid air mass contributed to the unseasonable twisters which were also spotted in Tennessee, Indiana and Mississippi, Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com said.
Damages reported from the twisters have been mostly to buildings, vehicles, power lines and trees while one injury was reported in Mississippi where a person suffered a possible broken arm after the tornado struck their home.
Whiteout: A pedestrian walks on a snow-covered street in Seattle Read more…Magma Causing Uplift in Oregon
Caption: The Three Sisters area — which contains five volcanoes — is only about 170 miles (274 km) from Mount St. Helens, which erupted in 1980. Both are part of the Cascades Range, a line of 27 volcanoes stretching from British Columbia in Canada to northern California. This perspective view was created by draping a simulated natural color ASTER image over digital topography from the U.S. Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset. Credit: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Volcanic activity is causing the earth to rise in Oregon, scientists have found.
Though whether such uplift is a sign of an imminent eruption remains uncertain.
As early as the summer of 1996, a 230-square-mile (600-square-kilometer) patch of ground in Oregon began to rise. The area lies just west of the South Sister Volcano, which with the North and Middle Sisters form the Three Sisters volcanoes, the most prominent peaks in the central Oregon stretch of the Cascade Mountains.
Although this region has not seen an eruption in at least 1,200 years, the scattered hints of volcanic activity here have been a cause of concern, leading to continuous satellite-based monitoring. Now 14 years of data is revealing just how the Earth is changing there and the likely cause of the uplift — a reservoir of magma invading the Read more…
Surprise Underwater Volcanic Eruption Discovered
The chain is all that is visible of an ocean-bottom hydrophone, an instrument that detects earthquakes, buried in about six feet of new lava produced by a recent eruption at the Axial Seamount. Credit: Bill Chadwick, Oregon State University, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.An undersea volcano has erupted off the coast of Oregon, spewing forth a layer of lava more than 12 feet (4 meters) thick in some places, and opening up deep vents that belch forth a cloudy stew of hot water and microbes from deep inside the Earth.
Scientists uncovered evidence of the early April eruption on a routine expedition in late July to the Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano that Read more…
Case Study: Tsunami in Seaside, Oregon
Oregon Coast’s Vulnerability
Recent research suggests that a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake could create tsunami waves that impact over 1,000-km of coastline in the U.S. and Canada. Source: USGSThe northwestern coast of Oregon is susceptible to both local and far-field tsunamis. The Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the eastward moving Juan de Fuca plate meets the westward moving North American Plate, is just off the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and Canada. It is a 750-kilometer long fault zone. This area is very active tectonically, and therefore has the potential to produce large earthquakes and possibly, subsequent tsunamis. This subduction zone is thought to have last ruptured in 1700.
Additionally, far-field earthquakes throughout the Pacific are also capable of spawning tsunamis that could eventually reach the Oregon coast. Historical records show that since 1812, about 28 tsunamis with wave heights greater than one meter have reached the U.S. west coast. The March 1964 “Good Friday” earthquake created the most devastating of these tsunamis. The epicenter of this earthquake was near Anchorage, Alaska. The tsunami that followed this earthquake reached coasts all along the western U.S. within six hours. Cannon Beach, a small coastal community in northwestern Oregon was inundated during Read more…
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