LoCo received quite a few calls and emails regarding last week’s New Yorker article titled “The Really Big One.”

For those of you who don’t have time to read 10,000 words, the magazine detailed the cause and likely effect of the next full-margin rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Most notably, the inevitable 9.0 earthquake that could destroy a large portion of the Pacific Northwest.

So we asked Humboldt County’s world-renown seismologist Lori Dengler to share her thoughts on the article, in hopes of clarifying the difficult sciencey stuff and summarizing what was important from the lengthy article. Seriously, you might as well read a book. At least you’ll be proud of yourself when you’re done.

Dengler had three important notes on the matter.

One: “There is really nothing new in the New Yorker article.  We have been aware of the Cascadia threat since the mid to late 1980s.  Humboldt State University emeritus geology faculty Gary Carver, Bud Burke and their graduate students were important contributors to unraveling the North Coast part of the Cascadia story.  North Coast earthquake and tsunami planning and mitigation efforts have considered a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia earthquake our worst case event for about 20 years. Tsunami zone signage and evacuation maps are based on such an event.”
Two:  “A great Cascadia earthquake is inevitable but we aren’t ‘overdue.’  We have too limited of a record of past events to be certain of the recurrence.  What we can say is that it could happen this afternoon, or wait 50 years or more.  Don’t get tied up in the details of the probability. It is a credible event and we need to plan and prepare for it.”

Three: “There are things we can and should do to reduce the impacts of this earthquake and help our area to recover.  It means planning now - on a personal, organizational, regional and national level.  On a personal level - knowing what to do when the ground shakes, recognizing you are in or near a tsunami zone and how to evacuate and having supplies to keep you and your family coveted for at least a week is a good start.”

Information on how to prepare for an earthquake is available on the HSU Geology Department’s webpage.