Posted on 04/14/2023 5:28:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
* The hole may be leaking 'fault lubricant' that reduces stress on two plates
* The fault could unleash a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest
* READ MORE: Extra layer of plate tectonics could be causing tremors in Pacific
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Scientists fear a hole in a 600-mile-long fault line in the Pacific could trigger a catastrophic earthquake that would decimate cities along the northwestern US.
The hole spewing hot liquid sits 50 miles off the shoreline of Oregon, on the boundary of the dipping fault known as Cascadia Subduction Zone, which spans from Northern California into Canada.
This geological feature is capable of unleashing a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest - and the hole could be the fuel it needs.
The leak was first observed in 2015, but a new analysis led by the University of Washington (UW) suggests the chemically distinct liquid is 'fault lubricant.'
This liquid allows plates to move smoothly, but without it, 'stress can build to create a damaging quake,' researchers said.
The team named the hole, which they describe as a hot spring, 'Pythias Oasis' after the ancient Greek oracle who 'prophesized' with the assistance of the mind-altering gases rising from a hot spring.
'It seems equally hallucinatory to find a spring of low-salinity, high-temperature, mineral-rich water flowing from the seafloor 3,280 feet below the surface off the coast of Oregon,' researchers shared in a statement.
A robotic diver uncovered the hole in a 2015 survey when sonar images captured bubbles rising from the seafloor.
Data showed liquid from the spring was coming from the plate boundary line and appeared warmer than the surrounding area.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Gee, I hope that all three Republicans in Portland are safe.
Just her they discovered it now, suddenly means there an increased risk? Dumb.
I don’t fault you for posting this article. (Yes yes, I know... “boo hiss boo”)
...it’s a hole, it’s a hole, it’s a hole in the bottom of the sea.
A certain somebody heard the word “crack”, and is deep sea diving right now looking for the motherload
There is a reason he’s called ‘Hunter’..............
When I was a kid, I knew every verse...................
I see a Michael Bay movie about this in the future.
What a terrible job of photoshopping. It’s amazing that the bubble boundary is perfectly straight and stop, magically, at the same point at the top.
Obfuscation between the headline and the story turns this into misinformation which could easily be turned into disinformation and then they will just be lying about a newly discovered vent that they have known about for over 5 years thats gonna kill us at its first opportunity.
FWIW, eruption of underwater volcanoes releases heat into the oceans which in turn raises the global air temperature and creates water vapor (a greenhouse gas).
Warming the oceans also releases dissolved CO2 from the water.
They'll be fine as long as they're east of I-5.
On red alert (no one leave their post) for something that was first seen 8 years ago?
They found a hole in the bottom of the sea........
Do you think they’ll find the germ in the eye of the flea on a tick on the hair of the wart of the frog on the knot in the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea?
EC
Your mistake, my FRiend, was in not copyrighting that crack. I will be stealing it and using it in a variety contexts from this day forward.
We’ll done
😂😂😂
Fear porn sells and articles about the Cascadia Fault are always a good read to capture the imagination. I would bet that these articles are recycled once a week or more somewhere around the world.
There will be an event and it is certain. Yellowstone will erupt eventually too and it is potentially a mass extinction event. There will be a major earthquake along the San Andreas Fault one day.
What we cannot comprehend easily about the Cascadia or Yellowstone events are that the frequency of such events is measured in tens or hundreds of thousands of years.
I believe geologist think that a major quake along the San Andreas Fault is the most likely according to geological history but in the end we have even less control over these events than we do a large asteroid or meteor impacting the plant.
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