Deep-sea landslides in the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia subduction zone hold a record of earthquakes dating back 7,500 years, and similar markers may be found in other tectonic plate boundaries worldwide, new research shows.
Subduction zones are places where an oceanic tectonic plate dives beneath a continental plate, which can cause large and damaging earthquakes like the 2011 Tohoku magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Japan that triggered a devastating tsunami. The Cascadia subduction zone — which extends from northern California to Vancouver Island, British Columbia — is capable of quakes of at least magnitude 9.0, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
