A Geological Perspective on Last Week’s Quake

We rarely post reruns, but this show from last December is quite relevant in light of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula last Tuesday. The subsequent tsunami watch along the West Coast soon became a tsunami advisory, and later, a tsunami warning was issued for the North Coast. Although the tsunami peaked at 3.6 feet in Crescent City, it was another good lesson for everyone living in a tsunami hazard area.

And if you are wondering why Crescent City is so often on the receiving end of tsunamis, check out this 2008 article by local expert Lori Dengler et al.

The Vulnerability of Crescent City, California, to Tsunamis Generated by Earthquakes in the Kuril Islands Region of the Northwestern Pacific

Original show notes:

What’s the difference between a strike-slip fault and a subduction zone? Can a local 7.0-magnitude earthquake? And what on earth was going on with all that weird footage of Humboldt Bay last week, in the wake of the quake?

Jay Patton, of Cal Poly Humboldt’s geology department, is here to talk us through it all. Check out his blog here.