>> This spot hosts a number of hydrothermal vents and sits on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the ocean floor is spreading apart. This area is separate from the subduction zone — a region where one tectonic plate is sinking into the mantle underneath another plate — closer to the coast that can create large, destructive earthquakes, said Zoe Krauss, a doctoral candidate in marine geophysics in the University of Washington.
A big one wasn’t likely or possible in Noto apparently. It happened and there was a flurry of quakes beforehand.
Not sure if you’ve experienced something like that but it’s extreme. If you live in that area I’d not stack anything too high or get under and propped up cars for a few weeks.
I do live in western WA, where this is an ongoing concern, but it should be noted that a flurry of small quakes is pretty regular activity here, as anyone who regularly monitors the USGS earthquake map can attest.
>> This spot hosts a number of hydrothermal vents and sits on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the ocean floor is spreading apart. This area is separate from the subduction zone — a region where one tectonic plate is sinking into the mantle underneath another plate — closer to the coast that can create large, destructive earthquakes, said Zoe Krauss, a doctoral candidate in marine geophysics in the University of Washington.