Host Dave Schlom is joined by Oregon State marine geologist Chris Goldfinger to take an in-depth look at the West Coast's two most dangerous faults, the San Andreas and Cascadia.
Both are major plate boundaries and capable of unleashing seismic havoc. California is long overdue for the Big One on the San Andreas, and the last major quake on Cascadia was in 1700, which produced massive tsunami waves that slammed the West Coast and even reached Japan.
Goldfinger has studied both faults on the Pacific Ocean floor and has found that, in the geologic past, the faults have actually ruptured during the same time frames.
The fact that one fault seems to be capable of triggering the other is a sobering finding for a region living with the knowledge that eventually, one or the other, and perhaps both, have to give!
