Two earthquakes off Oregon coast
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:07 am
Warning, long winded bable trying to justify all the money I owe in student loans:
I just sat through a quarter of this stuff... the reason they happen deep is when plates come together (like in California ) the ocean plate pushes under the continental plate back down into the mantel where it re melts. The problem is when it doesn't melt quiclky enough it get to long, leverage takes over and it snaps, then everything starts moving.
Its good that its happening often otherwise latter you'd have a lot bigger earthquake. The convergent plates aren't whats eventualy going to kill hundreds of thousands on that coast, its whats called transform plates that will be the big one. Thats when they slide past each other and the bed rock hangs up one the opposing bed rock. then when it snaps whole areas move a few feet in a matter of seconds... the last big one in California they estimate the ground pulsed in waves that were three ft high. When it happens again we will have millions living there as opposed to a few hundered thousand like last time.