Seattle is best known for the earthquake danger posed by the massive Cascadia subduction zone offshore. But researchers say another threat lies much closer to the city itself. A new study published in GSA Bulletin examines a complicated system of faults running directly beneath Seattle and nearby communities, revealing that smaller faults in the region may be far more active than previously understood.
"My job as a paleoseismologist," says Dr. Stephen Angster, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Science Center in Seattle and lead author of the new study, "is to figure out when and how often these local faults rupture, which would help us predict roughly when we come in the window of the next potential rupture."
Hidden Faults Beneath Seattle
