Posted on 08/07/2019 3:47:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A gaping hole in a dying tectonic plate beneath the ocean along the West Coast of the United States may be wreaking havoc at Earth's surface, but not in a way most people might expect.
The researchers in the new study aren't the first to suggest that the Michigan-size Juan de Fuca (pronounced "wahn de fyoo-kuh") plate has a tear. But thanks to a new, detailed dataset, they're the first to say so with certainty.
The Juan de Fuca plate is long, stretching about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) along the Pacific Northwest coast, from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Cape Mendocino, California. "No part of it is above the water. It's a total oceanic plate" that's subducting, or diving beneath another plate, in this case the North American plate (a continental plate), Hawley said.
From 2011 to 2015, scientists boated out over different parts of the Juan de Fuca plate, dropped ocean-bottom seismometers underwater and let these sensors collect seismic data from earthquakes all over the world for a year.
The research is a "thought-provoking idea paper," said Ray Wells, a research geologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey in Portland, Oregon, who was not involved with the study.
"I'm happy to see more data indicating a hole in the Juan de Fuca plate," Wells told Live Science in an email. "The coincidence of the hole with the location of a subducted zone of weakness in the Juan de Fuca plate is interesting and could help to produce a tear."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.google.com ...
Direct link to the article:
https://www.livescience.com/66117-tectonic-plate-tear-juan-de-fuca.html
That plate should be put on the endangered species list!
Federal funding will keep it alive. And, of course, a universal hunting ban.
Somehow, someway, somewhere this is Trumps fault.........
We should ban earthquakes...............
And it is important we get more money to study it.
There is nothing we can do to stop or change it but it must be studied.
Oh the huge manatee!!!!
Interesting, this should result in a ocean rift relatively
close. GPS seabed markers should indicate this rather
quickly. Also would think a subducting plate would be
slowed by friction with the resulting rift kept closed
up. Or maybe there is a really hot spot in the inner core
that is melting the plate faster than it can move.
Got to fill that Yellowstone basin somehow?
Thanks for the map. It helps.
Another strike by a large comet will get the juices flowing again.
No, according to the Canadians, it’s Queen Charlotte’s fault. See the map.
This kind of knowledge improves hydrocarbon & mineral exploration as well as increased knowledge (perhaps predictability !) of earthquakes so definitely study it.
Does this mean the taxpayers have to pay for its funeral ?
Great place to put trash - suck it down to the mantle.
No need for plastic bans.
Thank you
I suggested putting a little caulk in there.
That mayor from Indiana who is running for president got all excited for some reason.
I wonder how much the insurance lobby would pay for that legislation?
LOL.
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