5.2 Quake Hits Off Petrolia Where Cascadia Meets San Andreas Fault

M5.2 Earthquakes Hits Off Petrolia Where The Cascadia Subduction Zone Meets The San Andreas Fault

The quake hit where the Cascadia Subduction Zone links to the San Andreas Fault at the Mendocino Triple Junction.

Yesterday, the Pacific Northwest was seismically very active. Just a few hours after a M5.7 earthquake rattled Utah, a M5.2 earthquake hit off petrolia in California.

The shallow earthquake hit at a depth of about 17 miles.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers indicated there were no current tsunami watches or warnings. 

Although offshore, more than 1,800 people reported feeling the earthquake that rattled much of Humbolt County in California.

The Mendocino Triple Junction is the point where the Gorda plate, the North American plate, and the Pacific plate meet, in the Pacific Ocean near Cape Mendocino in northern California.

This triple junction is the location of a change in the broad plate motions which dominate the west coast of North America, linking convergence of the northern Cascadia subduction zone and translation of the southern San Andreas Fault system.

It has been reently shown that the an earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone could trigger a similar shaker on the San Andreas fault to the south and thus create a giant seismic event along the U.S. West Coast.