SEATTLE -
"The fault is prime," says Bill Steele. "It could break tomorrow." Steele is a University of Washington Hazard Seismologist. He and other researchers and scientists at UW have been watching the earth beneath us anxiously for decades knowing full-well their work is now more important than ever.
"We need to prepare for a break in this generation,' he says."Of the last 7, 4 occurred in a 200 to 400 year time window, and we're beyond 300 years into that cycle."
But a new program has uncovered a clue, a phenomenon, rumbling right under our feet that could give scientists a "leg up" on when the next mega-quake will hit and where.
"We can see it slowly moving with GPS systems," says John Vidale, "and we can also hear it kind of rattling with the seismometers." Vidale is the Director for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
Scientists here have known for a long time the Juan De Fuca Plate is pushing and slipping under the North America Plate" - the one we're all sitting on. And that triggers a mega-earthquake around here about every 500 years. But they recently discovered that there's an area farther inland - a "stress point" called an "episodic tremor and slip" or ETS and that could spell big trouble.
"From the ETS we think we can map where the magnitude 9 earthquake might break more accurately," says Vidale, "and it seems like the break will approach closer to the Puget Sound than we thought."
In 2003 the National Science Foundation launched a $10 million project called Earth Scope." Since then: crews have been installing hundreds of seismic systems in big rolling swaths across the country - digging holes, burying equipment, and powering it all with solar panels - every 40 square miles.
"So the solar panel picks up sun, charges to battery in the hole so we keep it running all day long," demonstrates Doan Nguyen. He is an engineer living in Western Washington. He's been part of that crew since 2006. Every two years, they dig up the equipment, and move it east, but when the found that stress point or "ETS events" in our area, they decided to come back.
"So each one of them we monitor by radio, by satellite dish," he continues.
Starting next week Nguyen will help to re-install those sensors to study just what's happening around here and help us all better prepare for what's to come.
"It certainly moves the science forward," says Steele, "in a way that it hasn't in many years so it's very exciting in that way."
Scientists say those ETS events tend to build up pressure for about a year then release or move during a period of about 2 weeks. They think a mega-quake could happen during those two weeks. Crews will be re-installing equipment in California first then work their way up to Washington by next spring.
"We need to prepare for a break in this generation,' he says."Of the last 7, 4 occurred in a 200 to 400 year time window, and we're beyond 300 years into that cycle."
But a new program has uncovered a clue, a phenomenon, rumbling right under our feet that could give scientists a "leg up" on when the next mega-quake will hit and where.
"We can see it slowly moving with GPS systems," says John Vidale, "and we can also hear it kind of rattling with the seismometers." Vidale is the Director for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
Scientists here have known for a long time the Juan De Fuca Plate is pushing and slipping under the North America Plate" - the one we're all sitting on. And that triggers a mega-earthquake around here about every 500 years. But they recently discovered that there's an area farther inland - a "stress point" called an "episodic tremor and slip" or ETS and that could spell big trouble.
"From the ETS we think we can map where the magnitude 9 earthquake might break more accurately," says Vidale, "and it seems like the break will approach closer to the Puget Sound than we thought."
In 2003 the National Science Foundation launched a $10 million project called Earth Scope." Since then: crews have been installing hundreds of seismic systems in big rolling swaths across the country - digging holes, burying equipment, and powering it all with solar panels - every 40 square miles.
"So the solar panel picks up sun, charges to battery in the hole so we keep it running all day long," demonstrates Doan Nguyen. He is an engineer living in Western Washington. He's been part of that crew since 2006. Every two years, they dig up the equipment, and move it east, but when the found that stress point or "ETS events" in our area, they decided to come back.
"So each one of them we monitor by radio, by satellite dish," he continues.
Starting next week Nguyen will help to re-install those sensors to study just what's happening around here and help us all better prepare for what's to come.
"It certainly moves the science forward," says Steele, "in a way that it hasn't in many years so it's very exciting in that way."
Scientists say those ETS events tend to build up pressure for about a year then release or move during a period of about 2 weeks. They think a mega-quake could happen during those two weeks. Crews will be re-installing equipment in California first then work their way up to Washington by next spring.
