Risk Of Cascadia Quake Elevated As Puget Sound 'Slow Slip' Event Begins

[Emily]

http://patch.com/washington/seattle/risk-cascadia-quake-elevated-puget-sound-slow-slip-event-begins

Risk Of Cascadia Quake Elevated As Puget Sound 'Slow Slip' Event Begins

A slow earthquake is happening under Puget Sound right now, which increases the risk of a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake.



By Neal McNamara (Patch Staff) - February 23, 2017 4:58 pm ET SEATTLE, WA ? Although the risk is slight, it might be a good time to check your supply of food and fresh water. That's because the region is entering a period when the risk of a megathrust Cascadia subduction zone earthquake is slightly higher.
On Wednesday, the semi-annual "slow slip" event began, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) at the University of Washington. The event happens about every 14 months deep underneath the Puget Sound area and is essentially a slow earthquake that takes place over the course of two weeks...

[Emily]

Here's the log on this unusual ETS event:

http://pnsn.org/tremor/tremor-log/ets-event-of-winter-2017

...No northern Washington ETS of the past 15 years (since we have been monitoring it) has been this short in time and limited in space. Wech-o-meter plots of the past 10 years illustrate most of this period. The closest event similar to this one might be the second half of the fall-2014 event.