Scientists Uncover Hidden Earthquake Threat Lurking Beneath Northern California’s Fault Zone
Indian Defence Review • • general
Key Points:
- Researchers from USGS, UC Davis, and University of Colorado Boulder discovered hidden seismic activity beneath Northern California’s Mendocino Triple Junction, revealing a more complex earthquake threat than previously known.
- The study highlights low-frequency earthquakes, undetectable by humans, which provide crucial data on tectonic plate movements and respond to tidal forces, helping refine models of subterranean seismic processes.
- The Mendocino Triple Junction, where the Pacific, North American, and Gorda Plates meet, actually involves five distinct tectonic pieces, including the Pioneer Fragment and a broken section of the North American Plate, complicating the region’s seismic hazard assessment.
- This new tectonic model challenges earlier assumptions about plate boundaries and fault locations, indicating that earthquake prediction in Northern
