Experts on alert for MEGAQUAKE off US coast due to hole on fault line

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

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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
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 and
sits on the boundary of the dipping fault known as Cascadia Subduction
Zone.

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 the hot spring below.

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'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.

Co-author Evan Solomon, a UW associate professor of oceanography who
studies seafloor geology, said in a statement: 'They explored in that
direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming
out of the seafloor like a firehose.

'That's something that I've never seen and, to my knowledge, has not been
observed before.'

Observations later determined the leaking fluid was 16 degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than the surrounding seawater and coming directly from the Cascadia
megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 300 to 500 degrees
Fahrenheit.

'Loss of fluid from the offshore megathrust interface through these
strike-slip faults is important,' the statement notes, 'because it lowers
the fluid pressure between the sediment particles and hence increases the
friction between the oceanic and continental plates.'

The Cascadia megathrust spans several major metropolitan areas, including
Seattle and Portland, Oregon, but also touches parts of Northern
California and Vancouver Island in Canada.

Solomon compared the megathrust fault zone to an air hockey table

'If the fluid pressure is high, it's like the air is turned on, meaning
there's less friction and the two plates can slip,' he said.

'If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will lock – that's when
stress can build up.'

The Cascadia subduction zone is a region where two tectonic plates
collide.

The Juan de Fuca, a small oceanic plate, is being driven under the North
American plate atop the continental US.

Subduction systems – where one tectonic plate slides over another – can
produce the world's largest known earthquakes. A prime example is the 2011
Tohoku earthquake that rocked Japan, killing an estimated 20,000 people.

Cascadia is seismically quiet compared to other subduction zones but is
not completely inactive.

Research indicates the fault ruptured in a magnitude nine event in 1700,
roughly 30 times more powerful than the largest predicted San Andreas
earthquake.

Solomon said that fluid released from the fault zone is the first known
site of its kind.

However, he theorizes that similar springs could lurk nearby but are
harder to detect from the ocean's surface.

A significant fluid leak off central Oregon could explain why the northern
portion of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off the coast of Washington, is
believed to be more strongly locked, or coupled, than the southern section
off the coast of Oregon.

Co-author Deborah Kelley, a UW professor of oceanography, said: 'Pythias
Oasis provides a rare window into processes acting deep in the seafloor,
and its chemistry suggests this fluid comes from near the plate boundary.

'This suggests that the nearby faults regulate fluid pressure and
megathrust slip behavior along the central Cascadia Subduction Zone.'


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