{"id":43202,"date":"2019-11-19T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/julys-monroe-earthquake-is-informing-plans-for-future-danger\/"},"modified":"2019-11-19T11:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T19:30:00","slug":"julys-monroe-earthquake-is-informing-plans-for-future-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/julys-monroe-earthquake-is-informing-plans-for-future-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"July’s Monroe earthquake is informing plans for future danger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

MONROE — The magnitude 4.6 Monroe earthquake<\/a> felt by thousands of Puget Sound-area residents in July is helping scientists assess how future quakes will impact the region.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The relatively tame event was serendipitous for a group of scientists from Harvard, the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Just over a week before the earthquake hit, the group placed seismometers throughout the Seattle-Tacoma area to record how background noises like traffic or swaying trees interacted with the area’s geology.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The scientists planned to study the Seattle and Tacoma sedimentary basins — depressions filled with soft sediment, rather than rock — to learn more about how they’re shaped.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

But when the Monroe earthquake hit, they got more data than they bargained for.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Seattle, Tacoma and Everett all lie within some of Puget Sound’s largest basins. These areas magnify how much the ground shakes in an earthquake.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“You can think of a basin as a bowl of Jello-O,” said Alex Hutko, a project lead with the Seismic Network.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

If the bowl is shaking, the stack of Jell-O inside it shakes even more.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Seattle,<\/a>

Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Mukilteo all lie within some of Puget Sound’s largest basins. These areas magnify how much the ground shakes in an earthquake. (Erin Wirth)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Everett’s basin is centered under Hat Island in Possession Sound and extends north to Marysville, east to Granite Falls and west past Whidbey Island.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

With the data retrieved during the Monroe earthquake, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Erin Wirth said scientists are now able to study just how much basins amplify ground shaking.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The amount a basin increases shaking is the same regardless of an earthquake’s magnitude, so the data will help them determine how future, bigger quakes will impact Puget Sound’s urban areas, Wirth said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

But each basin is unique. The Seattle Basin won’t magnify shaking the same way Everett’s will.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Scientists are still combing through the data, and results won’t be published for months to a year. In the meantime, Wirth said, they’re learning just how crucial it is to know how urban basins will respond to larger-magnitude earthquakes.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The amplification will affect tall structures the most, she said, so the research could inform how buildings are built to withstand shaking.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“This has driven home the need to have these (instruments) in these basins permanently,” Wirth said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Julia-Grace Sanders: 425-339-3439; <\/em>jgsanders@heraldnet.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gathered by lucky accident, data from the 4.6-magnitude quake could help assess bigger hazards. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":723,"featured_media":43203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-43202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43202"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}