Talk:Nisqually earthquake
From Academic Kids
Western Washington is basically one big subduction zone, and the Nisqually quake was at a depth of 52km, which is roughly where the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plate meet below the Olympia area. In fact, search for "nisqually" and "subduction" on google and you'll get dozens of hits that refer to it as a subduction earthquake. The sentence needed rewritten because saying the earthquake occured BELOW the North American plate and IN the Juan de Fuca plate is technically inaccurate, but Nisqually was a subduction quake. I'm putting information back in regarding this. -- nknight 13:16, 7 May 2004 (UTC)
- Upon some further review, I had myself twisted around a bit. The sentence was in fact accurate (which I've reflected in my update to the article, though looking at it again it should probably be clarified further), and it also wasn't strictly a subduction quake. From Life in the Subduction Zone (http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/science/hsy71801.000/hsy71801_0.htm):
- Deep earthquakes, such as the Nisqually earthquake, occur internally within the Juan de Fuca plate as it bends and deforms while sinking into the mantle,
- So the overall picture is this: Nisqually wasn't actually a subduction quake, but *is* a consequence of the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate. -- nknight 13:44, 7 May 2004 (UTC)
