Is the 'Big One' Coming? Study Warns Cascadia 'Megathrust' Fault is 'Eerily Quiet'

Cascadia Subduction Zone
Great Subduction Zone earthquakes are the largest earthquakes in the world, and are the only source zones that can produce earthquakes greater than M8.5. The CSZ has produced magnitude 9.0 or greater earthquakes in the past, and undoubtedly will in the future. http://pnsn.org/outreach/earthquakesources/csz

Is the ‘big one’ coming? Study warns huge 1,000km long fault where megaquake will originate is ‘eerily quiet’
The fault zone expected to generate the next ‘big one’ earthquake has gone silent.
Researchers are baffled by the lack of activity at the 1,00km long Cascadia fault which stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California.
Experts believe the lack of activity could point to a build up of pressure – which could lead to a massive killer quake. 
The Cascadia earthquake fault zone lies underwater between 40 and 80 miles offshore of the Pacific Northwest coastline. 

It is ‘a puzzle,’ according to University of Oregon geophysics professor Doug Toomey’What is extraordinary is that all of Cascadia is quiet.’If it is completely locked, it means it is increasingly storing energy and that has to be released at some point.It is ‘very concerned’ and  it is ‘imperative’ people in the Northwest continue to prepare for a big earthquake. 

The last full rip of the Cascadia Subduction Zone happened in January 1700 

Daily Mail –  Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/kyvxrad

USGS  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/crust/cascadia.php

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1661f/pp1661f_text.pdf

Local Tsunami Hazards in the Pacific Northwest from Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes  http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1661b/

Image credit: USGS