PORT ANGELES — Former state Rep. Jim Buck will give a presentation next week on life in Port Angeles after a major earthquake.
The “Port Angeles After the Earthquake” program will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in the Raymond Carver Room at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
“The show will focus on a number of new studies that explain how the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake is expected to damage our community,” Buck said in a news release.
Buck will share state Department of Natural Resources maps detailing escape routes from downtown Port Angeles, Federal Emergency Management Agency studies predicting reopening times for vital bridges and highways and University of Oregon illustrations of how much the subduction zone is moving the Olympic Peninsula.
“Come learn how Clallam County residents are using this information to get ready for the Big One,” Buck said.
Scientist say a magnitude-9.0 earthquake strikes along the Cascadia subduction zone roughly once every 500 years.
The last major Cascadia quake and tsunami occurred on Jan. 26, 1700, according to geological evidence.
The off-shore Cascadia subduction zone stretches from Vancouver Island to Northern California. It separates the colliding Juan de Fuca and North American plates.
The next Cascadia megathrust earthquake will shake the ground violently for about five minutes and trigger a 30- to 40-foot tsunami, Buck has said in previous lectures.
“Great subduction zone earthquakes are the largest earthquakes in the world, and are the only source zones that can produce earthquakes greater than magnitude-8.5,” according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.
“The CSZ (Cascadia subduction zone) has produced magnitude-9.0 or greater earthquakes in the past, and undoubtedly will in the future.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
