With the recent 6.0 quake in San Francisco, it’s natural to wonder where – and when – another earthquake will his Washington state.
A 6.8 quake rattled Olympia in 2001, damaging the capitol dome, injuring 400 people and doing particular damage to old brick buildings all the way up in Seattle.
That 2001 disaster led to a regional plan to deal with future earthquakes, including the Big One which scientists predict hits Washington and Oregon every 500 years. Those giant quakes happen offshore and can lead to tsunamis.
Here’s a map from the US Geological Survey showing the risk of large quakes throughout the Lower 48. You can see that the biggest risk of quakes in our state is clearly on the west side, with the danger decreasing to the east.
And here’s a map of earthquakes during two weeks in August in our state, all minor ones.
Quakes tend to be focused around the mountain ranges, which are created by a subduction zone, one tectonic plate diving under the other, and it’s how our state’s volcanos are also produced.