Evidence for great Holocene earthquakes along the outer coast of Washington state

Brian F. Atwater

doi:10.1126/science.236.4804.942

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Evidence for great Holocene earthquakes along the outer coast of Washington state

Brian F. Atwater

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Abstract

Intertidal mud has buried extensive, well-vegetated lowlands in westernmost Washington at least six times in the past 7000 years. Each burial was probably occasioned by rapid tectonic subsidence in the range of 0.5 to 2.0 meters. Anomalous sheets of sand atop at least three ofthe buried lowlands suggest that tsunamis resulted from the same events that caused the subsidence. These events may have been great earthquakes from the subduction zone between the Juan de Fuca and North America plates.

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Source-reported bounding extent: 46.11522629268242° to 48.96324323050743° latitude; -125.14698233121786° to -121.35201493207043° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Brian F. Atwater. 1987. Evidence for great Holocene earthquakes along the outer coast of Washington state. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.236.4804.942

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