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I was wrong when I said that small earthquakes relieve the tension (I was right when I said I wasn't an expert); read an article where they said a bunch of small earthquakes could be a precursor - it depends on the type of earthquake.
 
15 and 16 August, 2019. Two more off the Oregon coast. About a 5.3 and a 3.9 or so. 10 km deep right on the fault. Things getting interesting again. Height of tourist season on the various beaches. Yikes! :(

That is all.
 
When we are over in Oregon on our annual visit we usually stay with a dear family friend, now widowed, up in the hills south of Spencer's Butte at around 1800 ft or so.

It's of some concern to note that the last outpouring of glacial Lake Missoula, some 12500 years ago, flooded the Willamette Valley from the juncture with the Columbia right down to the current location of Eugene, to a depth of between 400 and 700 feet. Of course, we are very grateful today for its side-effect, that of laying down the thick layer of rich soil that gives the WM its richly-deserved reputation for being able to grow crops of all kinds.

However, while we have yet to find any human remains from that time, there were undoubtedly humans around when it all happened, and that must have been truly devastating for them, to say the least. Given today's huge population growth on the seaward side of the Coastal Range, a tsunami like the one that hit Japan in 2011 might result in perhaps a quarter of a million deaths, maybe more, and should therefore be taken seriously by all concerned. While it's true that much of the Oregon coast consists of near-precipitous cliffs, like those north of Manzanita, the town itself is wide-open to the sea, as is Winchester Bay and Bandon, and a great many others.

A mere fifteen-foot surge would wipe these townships off the map, just like they did in Sendai Province. One of my Japanese colleagues had a girl cousin who was a grade-school principal teacher in Sendai Province. Not a single trace of her, her fellow teachers and 200+ kids, or even their school building, was ever found.
 
Just in case you think that I'm fixated on the Glacial Floods of the Last Ice Age - the subject of my dissertation for my Masters, I'm just as kooked by Fort Rock and the sandals found there, UNDER a layer of ash dumped by the former Mount Mazama - now known as Crater Lake. Just how spooky is that? Those people must have looked up from the fishing - and yes, Fort Rock was at the end of an extensive LAKE - that thought 'WT.........................................?' before the ash and pimice storm hit them. I'm betting that some day we'll find some human remains in the vicinity - those of early Americans who couldn't run fast enough to get under cover in the caves nearby.
 
@tac similar to when Mount St Helens exploded in May, 1980. The individual Harry Truman refused to leave and is now buried under 150' of volcanic debris.


I was just at the Mount St Helens National Park this summer were a Ranger said that Harry went to talk to some school kids who begged him to leave so he agreed to. Then the media pressured him to return so they could have a story.
 
Two more off the coast of Bandon Oregon. One about a 6.0, the other about a 4.0. Either the 4th or 5th of September, 2019. Anybody on the coast feel anything? Nothing felt in Cave Junction Oregon.

That is all.
 
Just in case you think that I'm fixated on the Glacial Floods of the Last Ice Age - the subject of my dissertation for my Masters, I'm just as kooked by Fort Rock and the sandals found there, UNDER a layer of ash dumped by the former Mount Mazama - now known as Crater Lake. Just how spooky is that? Those people must have looked up from the fishing - and yes, Fort Rock was at the end of an extensive LAKE - that thought 'WT.........................................?' before the ash and pimice storm hit them. I'm betting that some day we'll find some human remains in the vicinity - those of early Americans who couldn't run fast enough to get under cover in the caves nearby.
Camped on the shore of Spirit Lake as a Boy Scout. There's still a lake, but it's not where I left it.
 
I was wrong when I said that small earthquakes relieve the tension (I was right when I said I wasn't an expert); read an article where they said a bunch of small earthquakes could be a precursor - it depends on the type of earthquake.
As a Geology student, we used to talk about microseismicity in subduction and fault zones. We were talking 2.0 and smaller. Given the Richter scale is logarithmic, with each full number being one order of magnitude stronger, a quake of 6 or more is a great release of energy.
While that may be a stress relief in the immediate area, it may cause much greater stress on other parts of the plate, such as a press-fit object getting misaligned in its fitting.
The big one, like death, is inevitable. While the latter is assured, whether the former happens in our lifetime is open to question.
 
@tac similar to when Mount St Helens exploded in May, 1980. The individual Harry Truman refused to leave and is now buried under 150' of volcanic debris.
Prior to the eruption of St. Helens, my GF was attending UW, and as she was talking on the phone with me, a 4+ earthquake happened. I could hear stuff rattle there in her dorm room (old copper phone lines were *way* better than cellular).
I was in Quetico (Boundary waters) for two weeks that summer. The eruption gave us amazing sunsets.
 
I took this little pic a few years syne - might be of interest to some here, I thought....

1569336905651.png
 

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