University of Washington
The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) is a massive fault line stretching from Vancouver Island to Northern California—and it’s the source of the vast majority of earthquakes and tsunamis in the region. In fact, scientists believe that the fault line will likely be the source of the next Big One, an anticipated megathrust earthquake so powerful it’ll wreak death and destruction the likes of which we’ve never seen before from a geological event.
So, it goes without saying that researchers have a special interest in studying the CSZ—and they may have uncovered something that could clue us in on what’s going on with the incredibly powerful ticking time bomb.
Researchers at the University of Washington found a warm liquid seeping out of the ocean floor near the zone roughly 50 miles off the coast of Newport, Oregon. The team suspects that the underwater spring, called Pythia’s Oasis, might be connected to the CSZ—and causing the fault line to take on more stress as it leaks. They published their findings on Jan. 25 in the journal Science Advances.
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