fault lines in puget sound

Posted: 12 days ago. Yet the SHZ and WRZ may be integral to the regional geology of Puget Sound, possibly revealing some deep and significant facets, and may also present significant seismic hazard. [106] There is an intriguing view from Stanley, Villaseor & Benz (1999) (see Fig. On the east, the Devils Mountain Fault connects with the south striking Darrington Fault (not shown) which runs to the OWL, and the Southern Whidbey Island Fault extends via the Rattlesnake Mountain Fault Zone (dashed line) to the OWL. Especially as seismic reflection data[135] shows some faulting continuing east across Vashon Island and the East Passage of Puget Sound (the East Passage Zone, EPZ) towards Federal Way and an east-striking anticline. [102] Or the Crescent margin may simply (and quietly) just run south-southeast under Seattle to the WRZ. [90], The RMFZ continues NNW past Fall City and Carnation, where strands of the RMFZ have been mapped making a gentle turn of 15 to 20 west to meet the Southern Whidbey Island Fault zone (SWIF, discussed above); the RMFZ is therefore considered to be an extension of the SWIF. [21] The OWL appears to be a deep-seated structure over which the shallower crust of the Puget Lowland is being pushed, but this remains speculative. It has been speculated that the OS might connect with the seismically active Saint Helens Zone (discussed below), which would imply that the OS is both locked and being stressed, raising the possibility of a major earthquake. Toll Free 1-800-523-5044. Movement on the southern segment of the DDMFZ that converges with the SCF the Darrington Fault was, as on the SCF itself, right-lateral. [198], Does the SHZ extend north? This is because the Olympic terrane is moving (relative to North America) northeast; its continued clockwise rotation is akin to a giant wheel rolling up the western side of the North Cascade crystalline core. The largest intra-crustal earthquakes have about the same total energy (which is about one-hundredth of a subduction event), but since they are closer to the surface they will cause more powerful shaking, and, therefore, more damage. One study of seismic vulnerability of bridges in the Seattle Tacoma area[4] estimated that an M 7 earthquake on the Seattle or Tacoma faults would cause nearly as much damage as a M 9 subduction earthquake. 09 Feb 2023 03:01:00 [9] Not until 1992 was the first of the lowland faults, the Seattle Fault, confirmed to be an actual fault with Holocene activity, and the barest minimum of its history established.[10]. There is evidence that the Tacoma Fault connects with the White River River Fault (WRF) via the EPZ and Federal Way, under the Muckleshoot Basin (see map),[137] and thence to the Naches River Fault. The Puget Sound Region is crisscrossed by fault lines and zones and also located close to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Juan de Fuca and North American tectonic plates meet. Nor does this uplift delineate any significant basin between it and the Devils Mountain Fault. The SWCC appears to be Tertiary marine sediments, not the pre-Tertiary metamorphic rock of the Cascades province; this would seem to make it part of the Coast Range province, with the Coast RangeCascade contact further east. [71], These faults cut through the Western Mlange Belt (WMB; blue area in map), exposed from North Bend (on Interstate 90) to Mount Vernon. 10+ Cruises Age 2020s. [44] The significance of this whether the edge of the Crescent Formation (and implicitly of the Siletz terrane) turns southward (discussed below), or the metamorphic basement is supplanted here by other volcanic rock is not known. Analysis of seismic profiles extending 50 km across the Puget Lowland from Lake Washington to Hood Canal indicates . Not until 2001 was it identified as a fault zone,[12] and only in 2004 did trenching reveal Holocene activity. Olympia VA Clinic at VA Puget Sound health care, 253-583-2621 Part of the Snohomish River Delta between Everett and Marysville could get nearly 6 feet, and Seattle's Harbor Island could be inundated with nearly 4 feet of water. [127], The Tacoma Fault (at right, and also between lines C and D on the Uplift and basin map, above) just north of the city of Tacoma, Washington has been described as "one of the most striking geophysical anomalies in the Puget Lowland". The most recent Seattle Fault earthquake was about 1,100 years ago; The Seattle Fault has been active about three or four times in the past 3,000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puget_Sound_faults&oldid=1132982136, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, A great subduction earthquake, such as the. Harold Tobin, . It has been suggested that a corresponding change in the character of the SWIF may reflect a change in the direction of regional crustal strain. This is supported by geologically recent scarps and other signs of active faulting on the Saddle Mountain faults, and also discovery of a geophysical lineament running through Pleasant Harbor (south of Brinnon) that appears to truncate strands of the Seattle Fault. [115] This seems reasonable enough, as Hood Canal is a prominent physiographic boundary between the Olympic Mountains and Puget Lowlands, and believed to be the location of a major fault. [8] As of 1985 only the Saddle Mountain Faults had been shown to have Holocene activity (since the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago). (E.g., the Olympia Fault is aligned with and appears to be the northernmost member of a set of faults between Olympia and Chehalis that may extend to the Columbia River, and there has been a suggestion that the Tacoma Fault may connect with the White RiverNaches River fault on the east side of the Cascades.[24]). Review for American Constellation to U.S.A. chatuga. It is not known to be seismic indeed, there is very little seismicity south of the Tacoma Basin as far as Chehalis[169] and not even conclusively established to be a fault. [143] Such interconnection also suggests a capability for larger earthquakes (> M7 for the Seattle Fault); the amount of increased risk is unknown.[144]. They estimate the fault is within a few miles of the surface and was active as recently as 1,000 to 1,100 years ago. The history and capabilities of the Frigid Creek Fault are not known. Offsets in the eastwest oriented Monroe Fault (south side of the Skykomish River), earthquake focal mechanisms, and kinematic indications show that the CCFZ is a left-lateral strike-slip fault, possibly with some oblique motion (up on the eastern side). [158] Vertical movement on these faults has created prominent scarps that have dammed Price Lake and (just north of Saddle Mountain) Lilliwaup Swamp. The Seattle fault zone is where the forward edge of the slab, coming to the top of the ramp, breaks and slips into the Seattle Basin. The DotySalzer Creek Fault does not fully fit the regional pattern of basins and uplifts bounded by faults described above. The implications of this are not only "the possibility of a moderate to large crustal earthquake along the SHZ", but that the tectonics under Puget Sound are more complicated than yet understood, and may involve differences in the regional stress patterns not reflected in current earthquake hazard assessments. The WRZ and SHZ are associated with the southern Washington Cascades conductor (SWCC), a formation of enhanced electrical conductivity[194] lying roughly between Riffe Lake and Mounts St. Helens, Adams, and Rainier, with a lobe extending north (outlined in yellow, right). In the angle between these is located the minor Lincoln Creek uplift, the Doty Hills, and, further west, an impressive chunk of Crescent basalt. [96] As the juxtaposition of various disparate tectonic structures in northwest Washington requires significant strike-slip movement, it is further expected that this contact will be a major fault.[97]. . This ramp could be either in the lower crustal blocks, or where the thrust sheet has split and one part is being forced over the next. There are some interesting relationships here. The northern end of the Crescent Formation (aka Metchosin Formation) has been identified as the eastwest trending Leech River Fault on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. [185] The prospect of a major earthquake on the Doty Fault poses a serious hazard to the entire Puget Sound region as it threatens vital economic lifelines: At Chehalis there is but a single freeway (Interstate 5) and a single rail line connecting the Puget Sound region with the rest of the west coast; the only alternate routes are very lengthy.[186]. Detailed mapping of this area since 2006 has revealed a complex pattern of faults. King County Emergency News. Accommodation of strain (displacement) between the Seattle Fault and the Saddle Mountain deformation zone is likely distributed across the more pliable sediments of the Dewatto Basin; this, and the greater depth to the Crescent Formation, may account for the subdued expression of the Seattle Fault west of Green Mountain. This structure is shown in the gravitational mapping of 1965, but without comment. However, the SWCC is relatively shallow (no more than 15 km deep), and likely is draped over pre-Tertiary bedrock. Observing these topographical features, some parallel gravity gradients, and a "very active zone of minor seismicity", William Rogers inferred in 1970 a "fault or other major structural feature".[64]. But it does not appear that there have been studies of the deeper structure of these faults, or whether there has been any recent activity. [56] But detailed mapping just past the intersection shows only a complex and confused pattern of faulting, with no indication that there is, or is not, through-going faulting. TTY Relay 711. [123] Other studies have faults extending NW or WNW from the SF towards Dabob Bay;[124] these are now recognized as part of the Dabob Bay fault zone. The Frigid Creek fault seems more directly aligned with this southwestward extension of the Seattle Fault, but such a connection seems to be as yet unremarked by geologists. There's a one-in-10 chance that the next . San Juan Island hopping on the Puget Sound, WA. [79] It is deemed a "major active or potentially active" structure. East of Puget Sound the basement of the Cascades province is various pre-Tertiary (older than 65 Ma) metamorphic rock. . ), Aeromagnetic mapping in 1999 showed a very prominent anomaly[172] (such as typically indicates a contrast of rock type); that, along with paleoseismological evidence of a major Holocene earthquake, has led to a suggestion that this structure "may be associated with faulting". [145] This is conformable with some regional tectonic interpretations[146] that put a major terrane boundary between the Olympics and the Puget Lowland, and imply a connection (either via the Discovery Bay Fault, or closer to Port Townsend) to the various faults in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Read More. And the magnitude used to generate that wave is only about 7.5, as opposed to a magnitude-9 earthquake off the coast. An informal consortium of regional agencies has coordinated LIDAR mapping of much of the central Puget Lowland, which has led to discovery of numerous fault scarps which are then investigated by trenching (paleoseismology). Seven times in the past 3,500 years, the CSZ has buckled and fractured to produce an earthquake so massive that it left a mark in the geologic record. However, there are indications that the fault is segmented, which might limit rupturing and earthquake magnitude.[36]. Energy builds up as elastic strain in rocks. And since those models for the Seattle Fault were published, there've actually been many more Puget Sound faults discovered. Yet the former is only the first of at least six more parallel southeast striking faults, which do cross the Salzer Creek Fault. This follows the front of the Rosedale monocline, a gently southwest-tilting formation that forms the bluffs on which Tacoma is built. Publication Year: 2010: Title: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Tacoma Fault Zone A plausible scenario for the southern Puget Sound region, Washington: DOI: 10.3133/fs20103023: Authors: [98] This turns and runs just south of Victoria, nearly in-line with the SWIF. [162] Trench studies indicate major earthquakes (in the range of M 6. to 7.8) on the Saddle Mountain faults [163] at nearly the same time (give or take a century) as the great quake on the Seattle Fault about 1100 years ago (900930 AD). This is the Puget Lowland. "Puget Sound and related inland marine waters, including all salt waters of the state of Washington inside the international boundary line between Washington and British Columbia, and lying east of the junction of the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the rivers and streams draining to Puget Sound as mapped by water resource . Study of surface deformation suggests possible unmapped faults near Federal Way, running between Sumner and Steilacoom, and south of Renton.[223]. $30 to $33 Hourly. [197] This anticline, or uplifted fold, and the narrower width of the northern part of the SWCC, reflects an episode of compression of this formation. While the great subduction events release much energy (around magnitude 9), that energy is spread over a large area, and largely centered near the coast. [74], Early Eocene igneous units in the area appear to be part of a 49- to 44- Ma magmatic belt that appeared just after the arrival of Siletzia, and possibly associated with that event. [139] The Dewatto linement extends from the western end of the Tacoma fault (see map immediately above) northward towards Green Mountain at the western end of the Seattle fault. Aeromagnetic anomaly maps (USGS OFR 99-514). Deep quakes are the most common large earthquakes that occur in the Puget Sound region. At the edge of this older rock is the Rogers Belt, a geologically interesting zone running from the area of Sultan (due east of Everett) to Mount Vernon (just north of the bend in the Devils Mountain Fault). Locations of some previously mapped faults have been adjusted on the latest map. Subsidence dated to between AD 1445 and 1655 has been reported in Mud Bay (just west of Olympia). 182-3]", "Western limits of the Seattle fault zone and its interaction with the Olympic Peninsula, Washington", "Seismic reflection imaging across the eastern portions of the Tacoma fault zone", "The western extension of the Seattle fault: new insights from seismic reflection data", "Seismic Characterization of the Seattle and Southern Whidbey Island Fault Zones in the Snoqualmie River Valley, Washington", "Fault number 552, Hood Canal fault zone", "Radiocarbon Ages of Probable Coseismic Features from the Olympic Peninsula and Lake Sammamish, Washington", "Geologic map of the Summit Lake 7.5-minute quadrangle, Thurston and Mason Counties, Washington", "The Olympia structure; ramp or discontinuity? 6) Click "Plot" Draw. [187] Such a length would be comparable to the length of the Seattle or Tacoma faults, and capable of an earthquake of M 6.7. [154] In this view Hood Canal is only a syncline (dip) between the Olympic Mountains and the Puget Lowland, and such faults as have been found there are local and discontinuous, ancillary to the main zone of faulting to the west. (1997) a slab of rock mainly basalts of the Crescent Formation about 20km thick is being pushed up a "master ramp" of deeper material; this forms the Seattle Uplift. OLYMPIA, Wash. - A 9. Conjugate faults are secondary faults that branch off from opposite sides of a strike-slip fault at approximately the same angle. Very little is known about the structure of the deep crust (below about 30km or 19 miles), though this and other seismic tomography studies (such as Ramachandran 2001) provide tantalizing glimpses. [16] For the past 50 million years or so (since the early Eocene epoch) these have been thrust by subduction up against the North Cascades ("fixed block" in the diagram), which sit on the North American Plate. One animation shows the expected path of a Puget Sound tsunami generated by a quake on the Seattle Fault. Some upper-crustal formations (such as the Western and Eastern Melange Belts, see, There is a general north or northeast directed compression within the Lowland causing folds, which eventually break to become, This page was last edited on 11 January 2023, at 17:28. [73] The presence of detritus from the Idaho Batholith[72] indicates a former location closer to southern Idaho. [133] The Tacoma fault was initially suspected of following a weak magnetic anomaly west to the Frigid Creek fault,[127] but is now believed to connect with a steep gravitational, aeromagnetic, and seismic velocity gradient that strikes north towards Green Mountain (Blue Hills uplift). The San Juan Island and Leach River faults crossing the southern end of Vancouver Island are significant and undoubtedly connected with the DarringtonDevils Mountain and Southern Whidbey Island faults, and certainly of particular interest to the residents of Victoria, B.C. Read More. Simply put, the basement rock on the west side of Puget Sound does not match the basement rock on the east side. It therefore seems reasonable that the rest of the SWIF (and its apparent extension, the RMFZ) follows the Coast RangeCascade contact, and (these faults being active) constitutes the CRBF. This may explain why the Seattle and Tacoma faults seem to have ruptured at nearly the same time.[127]. There are other tsunami scenarios that are not accounted for in these maps, such as tsunamis caused by . This map of Puget Sound shows the location of the methane plumes as yellow and white circles. 206-296-3830. More than a millennium ago, a quake estimated at a magnitude 7 on the Seattle Fault thrust land upward as much as 23 feet and submerged 200-acre chunks of forest in central Puget Sound and Lake . It may also be the original location of the DarringtonDevils Mountain Fault (the dashed line "X" at the top of the following map). [29] This prospect is especially intriguing as a possible explanation of a cluster of seismic events around 1100 years ago.[30]. "[50], The contrast of seismic velocities seen to the northwest is lacking in this section, suggesting that it is not the Coast RangeCascade contact. A new view is developing that the regional tectonic boundary is not under Hood Canal, but just to the west, involving the Saddle Mountain fault zone (discussed below) and associated faults. [181] What is unknown is whether this was due to a great subduction earthquake, to the noted earthquake on the Seattle Fault about that time, or to an earthquake on a local fault (e.g., the Olympia structure); there is some evidence that there were two earthquakes over a short time period. Also intersecting at Mount St. Helens is a NE (045) trending line (red) of Pleistocene (about 4 Ma) plug domes and a topographic lineament (followed in part by Highway 12). [129] The western part is an active eastwest striking north dipping reverse fault that separates the Seattle Uplift and the Tacoma Basin, with approximately 30 miles (50km) of identified surface rupture. Puget Sound Energy Maps and Records Non-Disclosure Agreement: (NDA ONLY) ko ru zh es vi hi: PSE Map Request Form and Non-Disclosure Agreement: 07/29/2022: A parallel line ("B") about 15 miles (25 kilometers) to the west corresponds to the western limit of a zone of seismicity stretching from the WRZ to southwest of Portland. In the wedge model of Pratt et al. The fault type is subducting. The Puget Sound faults under the heavily populated Puget Sound region (Puget Lowland) of Washington state form a regional complex of interrelated seismogenic (earthquake-causing) geologic faults. Other similar lineaments (such as from Astoria to Glacier Peak) align with various topographical features and changes in fault orientation. Plot. (2001),[111] relying on seismic tomography data from the "Seismic Hazards Investigation in Puget Sound" (SHIPS) experiment, retains the thrusting slab and master ramp concepts, but interprets the Tacoma fault as a reverse fault (or back thrust) that dips north towards the south dipping Seattle fault (see diagram); as a result the Seattle Uplift is being popped up like a horst. [61], North of Everett is an area of parallel ridges and stream drainages oriented approximately NW-SE, evident even on non-geological maps. This seems geologically reasonable, as both the SWIF and RMFZ appear to be the contact between Tertiary Crescent Formation basement of Puget Sound on the west and the older Mesozoic (pre-Tertiary) mlange belt basement rocks under the Cascades on the east.[110]. 112 earthquakes in the past 365 days. [104] Although there is no direct evidence for any major north-striking faults under Seattle, this prospect appears to be endorsed by the geological community.[105]. E.g., HH mlange rock has been found in Manastash Ridge, 110km to the south (look for the small sliver of purple near the bottom of the diagram). The University of Puget Sound's Facilities Services Department is hiring an Electrician responsible for the inspection, installation, modification, maintenance and repair of the electrical systems across Puget Sound's beautiful residential campus community located . It's due for another one,. Prior to 2000, prominent aeromagnetic anomalies strongly suggested that the fault zone continued southeast, perhaps as far as the town of Duvall, but this was uncertain as the SWIF is largely concealed, and the faint surface traces generally obliterated by urban development. [38] These earthquakes probably caused tsunamis, and several nearby locations have evidence of tsunamis not correlated with other known quakes. The mapped surface traces are only 5km long, but LIDAR-derived imagery shows longer lineaments, with the traces cutting Holocene alluvial traces. [142]) This reflects westward thrusting of the Seattle Uplift into the Dewatto basin, a northwestern extension of the Tacoma basin. Combined with continued aggressive electric conservation efforts, Energize . But today, after 131 years of statehood, residents of this region still don't know if they have a legal right to walk across a privately . [39] On the basis of marine seismic reflection surveying in the Strait of Juan de Fuca it has been suggested that the DMF, SPF, and UPF are structurally connected (at least in the segment crossing Whidbey Island). The Doty Fault appears to terminate against, or possibly merge with, the Salzer Creek Fault at Chehalis; the Salzer Creek Fault is traced another seven miles east of Chehalis. A different mountain and fault zone of the same name are located near Pasco; see QFFDB Fault #565), The southern end of Rattlesnake Mountain is truncated at the OlympicWallowa Lineament (OWL), and the faults turn easterly to merge with the OWL. [95], (Rattlesnake Mountain Fault Zone not included in QFFDB. If, as this model suggests, the various faults are interconnected within the thrust sheet, there is a possibility that one earthquake could trigger others. [170] Gower, Yount & Crosson (1985), labelling it "structure L", mapped it from Shelton (near the Olympic foothills) southeast to Olympia (pretty nearly right under the state Legislature), directly under the town of Rainier, to a point due east of the Doty Fault, and apparently marking the northeastern limit of a band of southeast striking faults in the Centralia-Chehalis area. These faults also form the north and south boundaries of uplifted pre-Tertiary rock, suggesting that the faults come together at a lower level, much like one model of the Seattle and Tacoma faults, but at a smaller scale. Let's make your home safer [19] These terranes were covered by the basalts of the Crescent Formation (part of Siletzia). . We use an extensive network of marine high-resolution and conventional industry seismic-reflection data to constrain the location, shallow structure, and displacement rates of the Seattle fault zone and crosscutting high-angle faults in the Puget Lowland of western Washington.

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fault lines in puget sound

fault lines in puget sound