Q&A: How ‘slow slip’ earthquakes may be driven by deep hydraulic fracturing

Joan Gomberg, left, and Marine Denolle

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a massive geologic fault that last ruptured in January 1700. But while this fault has stayed quiet for centuries, it regularly generates small tremors that accompany gradual, nondisruptive movement along the fault. The tiny tremor events and slow slippage are known collectively as “episodic tremor and slip.” Seismic waves associated with these tremor events are recorded and tracked by the UW’s Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. 

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El Niño shows us the true face of climate change

a yellow flood sign sitting on the side of a road

Though the El Niño period we’re in is natural and relatively predictable, its impacts on the global environment and economy have been significant — from sweltering heat in Australia to deep freezes across the southern U.S. El Niño may be giving us a glimpse of what’s to come if climate change is not soon curtailed.

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