Scientists fear a hole in a 600-mile-long fault line in the Pacific could trigger a catastrophic earthquake that would decimate cities along the northwestern US.

The hole spewing hot liquid sits 50 miles off the shoreline of Oregon, on the boundary of the dipping fault known as Cascadia Subduction Zone, which spans from Northern California into Canada.

This geological feature is capable of unleashing a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest - and the hole could be the fuel it needs.

The leak was first observed in 2015, but a new analysis led by the University of Washington (UW) suggests the chemically distinct liquid is 'fault lubricant.'

This liquid allows plates to move smoothly, but without it, 'stress can build to create a damaging quake,' researchers said.



The team named the hole, which they describe as a hot spring, 'Pythias Oasis' after the ancient Greek oracle who 'prophesized' with the assistance of the mind-altering gases rising from a hot spring.

'It seems equally hallucinatory to find a spring of low-salinity, high-temperature, mineral-rich water flowing from the seafloor 3,280 feet below the surface off the coast of Oregon,' researchers shared in a statement.

A robotic diver uncovered the hole in a 2015 survey when sonar images captured bubbles rising from the seafloor.

Data showed liquid from the spring was coming from the plate boundary line and appeared warmer than the surrounding area.

Co-author Evan Solomon, a UW associate professor of oceanography who studies seafloor geology, said in a statement: 'They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose.

'That's something that I've never seen and, to my knowledge, has not been observed before.'
Observations later determined the leaking fluid was 16 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the surrounding seawater and was coming directly from the Cascadia megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 300 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

'Loss of fluid from the offshore megathrust interface through these strike-slip faults is important,' the statement notes, 'because it lowers the fluid pressure between the sediment particles and hence increases the friction between the oceanic and continental plates.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11970435/Experts-red-alert-mega-earthquake-coast-analyzing-hole-fault-line.html

lol big wet hole needs more lube.

For its megathrust interface.

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Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please. ??

Oh no!


Anyway...

Oh no! not Seattle and Portland!

This is so release can occur beyond the second wall.

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Bidets got a tranny somewhere to fix that

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No shit. Wrath of God

So, deep sea thermal vents are new again?

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I specifically requested that it be California that gets wiped off the map by tectonic thingeries, this is some bullshit!

This could be great for real Americans

Goodbye Boeing......

‘Fault lubricant’ sounds like something a Sgt would use to prank an E1.

This sonar image of the Pythias Oasis site shows bubbles rising from the seafloor about two-thirds of a mile deep and 50 miles off Newport, Oregon. These bubbles are a byproduct of a unique site where warm, chemically distinct fluid gushes from the seafloor. Researchers believe this fluid comes directly from the Cascadia megathrust zone, or plate boundary, and helps control stress buildup between the two plates.

https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/04/10/warm-liquid-spewing-from-oregon-seafloor-comes-from-cascadia-fault-could-offer-clues-to-earthquake-hazards/

Cascadia Megathrust is one hell of a stripper name.

Bad things happen when Megathrust runs low on lube

Is that a bunch of trash on the sea floor there?

Glory hole?

As much as we love to joke about these not ideal zones taking "heat", we're all on the same team in the end.

I hate to type this, but it's true.

Joe Bastardi had been saying for a while that the cause of global warming is an increase of volcanic activity in the "ring of fire". There is a lot of data out there that underwater volcanos have been continuously erupting on massive scale since the 80s. This is why the oceans are warming, causing evaporation, which causes warming of the atmosphere.

This makes complete sense.

Oh noooo reduced by one tenth!

It looks like it's 8 inches across.  Might be a problem in 20 million years.

We can be friends.  Oh wait, we are.

It’s a big fat nothingburger. Cold water seeping into colder water.

All kidding aside, the horror of a worst-case scenario here would be difficult for most people to comprehend.

I don't want all of those people to die, or to lose some of the most productive land in our country, or to experience the famine and chaos and misery that would likely spread across the whole country (if not the globe) if this happens.

On the other hand, in the long run something like a real global catastrophe is about the only thing that will force people to realign their priorities away from the filth we're wallowing in now.

It’s tape!

Thanks Trump

Or a Chrysler full sized van

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When do the Kaiju come through?

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Asshead Inslee is going to be pissed about this climate change.

More people move to TX?

45 miles from the coast and standing by for a mega-thrust roller coaster ride.

Co-author Evan Solomon, a UW associate professor of oceanography who studies seafloor geology, said in a statement: 'They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose.

So now we know why sea level is rising.

has nothing to do with global warming.

Water comes out from the innards of the earth and flood the oceans.

UW is aces

Does it come in 55 gallon barrels?

And send about half of them to Texas at least?

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Go on..

If water is gushing out from some mysterious reservoir under the sea floor, wouldn't that cause the sea floor to fall at the same rate as the sea level is rising?

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