Seattle earthquake

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Does anyone know anything about the earthquake in seattle today? What happened with the plate boundaries?

-- melissa schwob (missalater@yahoo.com), February 28, 2001

Answers

I read up on this, and apparently the earthquake originated about 30- 35 miles below the earth's surface in a spot labeled the Cascadia subduction zone. As you recall, a subduction zone is where one plate sinks beneath the other. The exact cause of the earthquake seems to be blamed on a plate called the Juan de Fuca plate which is pushing away from the Pacific oceanic plate and toward the continental plate of North America.

-- Joel Bouchard (jboucha1@oswego.edu), March 01, 2001.

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