THE VOLCANIC PROCESSES THAT WILL RELEASE THE CASCADIA MEGA THRUST EARTHQUAKE HAVE BEEN UNDERWAY FOR ROUGHLY 8 MONTHS.
This is a bold statement to make. If any lives are to be saved by forecasting the Cascadia within this relatively tight timeframe you better start planning your actions now.
HOW THE CASCADIA IS RELEASED In summary: The Cascadia is held in place only by friction. The location of the friction is known as the Cascadia subduction zone. This zone is under the Cascadia chain of volcanic mounts, an undersea fracture zone just west of the coast of Washington/Oregon and the Northern California coast.
Once the stress has built up over hundreds of years it seeks to be released. The most effective means of reducing friction along the plate boundary zone is to melt it away at multiple points. This is what is now occurring. I have compiled evidence to prove this. This evidence is verifiable.
THE CASCADIA MEGA-THRUST EARTHQUAKE CAN NOW BE FORECAST WITHIN A PERIOD OF MONTHS I have discovered that there is an intrinsic relationship between the activity at the volcanic mounts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California, and the release of the Cascadia Mega Thrust Earthquakes, (CMTE).
It is scientifically established that the CMTE is a subduction EQ. I discovered that precursor subduction specific volcanic activity precedes the CMTE. It is rare to have high 3 magnitude and 4 plus magnitude earthquakes at multiple Cascade volcanoes. This will be our warning of the impending CMTE. The speed of the process of the release of the CMTE is not known. Careful study over the next few months will provide more data that will assist us in understanding the rate of development.
BEGINNING THE SEARCH FOR PRECURSOR ACTIVITY
The search for this precursor activity began about a year and a half ago. It began with the discovery of a very loose history of Tseax cone in British Columbia, erupting near or during the time of the 1700 Cascadia Mega Quake, and a single mariners logbook entry that stated that either Mt Rainier or Glacier peak was erupting during the 1700 Mega Quake.
These are clues to a connection between volcanic activity and the Cascadia Mega Quakes. That is not much to go on. I needed more substantial data. I searched for it and I found it.
THE SUMMARY OF ADDED DATA
The process is a building of pressure over hundreds of years is caused by the movement of North America westward. This is an established outcome of plate tectonics. This force overcomes the friction at the plate boundary zone and begins the process of subduction. This presents initially as subduction creep. Subduction creep causes subduction specific seismic tremor signatures to be recorded at the volcanic mounts above and along the contact boundary zone.
These signatures are now being recorded at 7 Cascadia Volcanic locations. 1) Crater lake, 2) Newberry, 3) a site 18 miles west of Mt Jefferson, 4 ) Mount St Helens, 5) Mount Rainier, 6) small at Glacier Peak and 7) at Mt Baker. Additionally there has been an increase in tremors at Mt Meager, in British Columbia, seamount activity at 6 seamounts (undersea volcanic cones) from Mid Vancouver Island West and North of Haida Gwaii. Since the 26th of Sept 2019 I have found a hot spot at Tseax cone, (Tseax River Cone or the Aiyansh Volcano, is a young cinder cone with adjacent lava flows. Tseax Cone (also called Tseax River Cone or the Aiyansh volcano) is a young cinder cone in the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province in British Columbia.),
Mt. Edziza (Mount Ediziza in NW British Columbia, Canada is a large, complex stratovolcano about 1 million years old forming the most recently active of a group of overlapping basaltic shields, lava domes, flows, and central stratovolcanoes. Mount Edziza contains a 2-km-wide, ice-filled summit caldera with a central summit crater and several flank vents. The volcano’s lavas range from basalt to rhyolite.
Frequent volcanic activity of the complex has been going on for about 8 million years, but the last eruptions occurred only about 1000 years ago.), Mt Shasta, Mt Lassen, Sutter Buttes, little known Mt. Troubridge in British Columbia and an un-named Vancouver island mountain with 2 very clear calderas, one on top and one on the flank.
Using overlapping infrared sat images, (College of Dupage) I undertook a meticulous count of hot spots of West North America From Mid British Columbia to the northern border of Mexico. This included all of the coast and as far east as Alberta, Montana, West Wyoming West Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. A big area indeed.
A total of 130 hot spots were spread across that area. 6 months ago you would be lucky to find 10 hot spots for the same area. Mount Shasta recently had a hot spot at it and has increased activity. More recently I counted 136 hot spots in British Columbia alone. (Slash burns accounted for approx 25%).
(British Columbia had 17 hot spots before the 26th for comparative value). Why are these hot spots important? Because the majority of them relate to magmatic rise that causes crustal heating. A smaller percentage relate to fires.
Mammoth Mountain has had many swarms of EQs of late and that is also an increase. I have also noted an increase in the numbers of small earthquakes being reported at widespread volcanic locations across western North America to include the Mojave Desert of Southern California.
THE DISCOVERY: INTERPRETING THE DATA
Immense pressure is required to create an immense earthquake such as the Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake. There has been a demonstrable increase in symptoms of immense pressure going back about 6 months. The combined data that’s been accumulated, reveals the truth of this. The seismology also says that the process of subduction is underway. The moderate 4.7M earthquake just months ago is the evidence along with the seismic creep we have witnessed in this same time period. Thus the melting of the friction points that restrain the Cascadia Mega Thrust Earthquake is underway. The subduction specific signatures prove this. This melting extends laterally over time along the plate boundaries.
There is also significant data to show that the area east of San Francisco and south of San Jose, California, are showing signs of volcanic instability, as witnessed during the final days of October 2019, when there were earthquakes in those areas. These have been shown to have volcanic influence. To wit; Los Banos, Tres Pinos and The Pinnacles that have seen small to moderate increased seismic activity this year.
The area between Vancouver British Columbia and Santa Barbara, California is showing signs of volcanism happening and this bears further close study. This entire area could come apart at the seams in the very near future.
References:
Volcanic Ash Advisory Center
Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
www.volcanolive.com/edziza.html
Personal Observations