So are you ready for “the big one”? It is not the earthquake itself that will kill you, it is all the infrastructure and structural failures that you should be concerned about. Additionally, with all the research being done, it is no longer thought of as if the big one will happen, it is irrefutable that the big one will happen. And will we be prepared?
The Experts Timeline
According to USGS, there is a 70% chance that one or more quakes of a magnitude 6.7 or larger will occur before the year 2030. In the Pacific Northwest, experts say that seven times in the past 3,500 years, the Cascadia Subduction Zone (or CSZ) has buckled and fractured to produce an earthquake so massive that it left a mark in the geologic record. There’s a one-in-10 chance that the next major Cascadia quake will occur sometime in the next 50 years. That means there is about a 37% chance that a megathrust earthquake of 7.1+ magnitude will occur in this CSZ fault zone.
But that is not where it ends. An earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone — a 1000-km-long (~600-mile-) fault zone that sits off the Pacific Northwest coast — can create a Cascadia tsunami that will reach the Northern Pacific coast within 15 to 20 minutes. In fact, Tsunamis can travel as far as 16 km (10 miles) inland, depending on the shape and slope of the shoreline, so if you are thinking that you will just outrun it when it happens, you are gambling with your life.
The Big One Is Not All Doom & Gloom
Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle, Everett, and Tacoma, Washington could see anywhere from 6 inches to 11 feet of water from a tsunami off the Washington coast. New maps from the Washington Geological Survey show it’s not only likely, but it is inevitable.
“The maps show slightly lower effects in the south Sound, with the Port of Tacoma getting 3.5 feet and low-lying areas of Olympia could receive 6 inches. The area that could see the worst inundation is Belfair, at the tip of Hood Canal, which could see depths of 14 feet. “We’re showing all the way from the Canadian border to Olympia,” said Corina Allen, the state’s chief hazards geologist.” Reported by Glenn Farley of King5 News
Based on data collected from the area, scientists believe a Cascadia subduction zone quake last happened here 321 years ago and say will happen again, however, as you know predicting earthquakes is not an exact science. In the Cascadia subduction zone, 13 megathrust events have been identified in the last 6000 years as the average CSZ frequency is about every 500-800 years.
So are you ready for the big one?
How do we prepare for it? On a repair level, for both ductility and added bonding strength, our seismic blend is an extremely unique secondary reinforcement that you can spray on as a Shotcrete application, saving not only in spray-thickness but on overall cost, too. In fact, a 10-millimeter-thick (0.4 inch) layer of our EHCC is enough to reinforce existing interior walls and support structures and is able to withstand 9.0+ seismic events.
SeismicFiber™ has been specifically developed to be used globally for a multitude of uses in concrete, including:
■ Seismic Repair of structures especially those with severe surface defects.
■ Seismic Retrofitting in Schools & Buildings
■ Seismic Retrofitting on Bridges and Infrastructure
■ Shotcrete & Seismic Spray Retrofitting Applications
■ Commercial Slabs-On-Ground
■ Precast Products
■ Blast and Impact Resistant Structures
■ 3-D Printing
