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I have again been feeling a lot of extremely subtle but relatively long lasting quakes again lately. I don't even report feeling them anymore because there's some indication they don't exactly fit in the "quake" category. They might be better thought of as slips, like they've lubed the tectonic plates so as not to be so jarring while moving.
During slow-slip, the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate stalls and moves westward, which puts stress on the Cascadia subduction zone. The small tremors we see in Puget Sound are an indication of that change in plate movement.The Juan de Fuca is stubbornly trying to lift the Cascade Range to greater heights, which also means Shasta and Lassen.
There are slow-slip events at different times during the year near Northern California and at the north end of Vancouver Island, in addition to the Oregon and Puget Sound events.
Maybe counterintuitively, I don't think this process will be violent. The Juan de Fuca is a mere shadow of its former self and there seems to me to be a lot of reason to think any resistance to it under there has already been smoothed away... especially if you have been contemplating the Yellowstone super volcano scenario.
I guess the 5.6 last night made a mess down in Petrolia and Redway, but the series of mid-fours to mid-fives off the Oregon coast that came eight hours earlier might only have caused a bit of sloshing out there.
Anyway, I guess the reason I'm bringing this up is that I am examining the plate movement data here and it conflicts somewhat with old information about which I have spoken recently.
The general thrust remains as stated before, that the Pacific Plate is trying to make its way under the North American Plate in general, but south of Punta Gorda, California the west side of the San Andreas is heading north, while the east side is inclined south... generally trying to push Baja California up toward my house... an attempt to unite the Point Reyes National Seashore with the City of Fort Bragg, California... ANOTHER "island" assembling California, so to speak.
In fact, if you fool with the zoom on that map, you might begin to see why I don't think plate tectonics conflict with an expanding earth theory. I mean, I know you're not weird. I am. Don't get me wrong, but why bother with me if you do not wish to follow my reasoning?
pipe up any time....
