Author's West Coast Quake Forecast After C2C AM Segment

By Cal Orey

Last night I was a News Segment guest tagged "author-earthquake sensitive" on Coast to Coast AM with host George Noory. I love being on the radio show but it's a bit like competing on Food Network's "Chopped"--you have a small amount of time to create words that must be plated to wow an audience. It's a challenge. There is so much I wanted to say, but so little time to say it. So here are several things I could have said but the clock was ticking so I didn't get a chance to "plate it" for a creative presentation.

1. The 6.8 Offshore Northern California earthquake hit in a region where it has had major quakes in the past. Actually, January 9, 2010 a 6.5 rocked the region and won me a 50 dollar earthquake bet with geologist Jim Berkland whom thought SoCal would shake first.

2. This earthquake hit in the vulnerable Cascadia subduction zone--a 680 mile long fault, that runs down the west coast of the the Pacific Northwest from northern California to Vancouver Island, and British Columbia...

3. Because of the huge fault area, the Cascadia subduction zone can create great earthquakes, magnitude 9.0 or greater, if a rupture occurred over its area.

On C2C I said I wouldn't bet my Aussie pup on
the "big
one" happening soon...the truth is, I wouldn't
wager my boy for anything!

4. We have been in a West Coast seismic drought so this major quake that "dodged a bullet" with little damage and  no injuries is a reminder that the "big one" is pending. Read: This shaker could have been a foreshock...back in 2005 almost 10 years ago, a 7.2 and 6.7 happened in this region during mid June.

5. ...History repeats itself when it comes to earthquakes. When the stored energy is released by slippage across the fault, the Cascadia subduction zone can produce a mega 9.0 earthquake as it did with the Cascadia one way, way back in 1700. 

6. Keep in mind, the 6.8 earthquake off the coast of Northern California on Sunday night was the strongest shaker on the West Coast since the 7.2 Baja California quake in 2010.

7. Sunday's temblor was followed by a series of more than a dozen aftershocks as large as a magnitude 4.6, according to the USGS. The surprise quake (despite I forecasted it to happen in 2014) hit at 10:18 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean 50 miles west of Eureka--a place countless earthquakes happen. It was a shallow one, less than 10 miles--which can trigger a big wave. Or not.

8. Sunday's earthquake did not cause devastating damage as did the 1964 Alaska great tremor that killed people in Crescent City, CA, due to the killer tsunami. Nor did the Northern California quake this month cause the damage of the 6.5 in January 2010 that snapped power lines, broke windows, and caused some injuries.  

9.  While the shaker was not earth-shattering, this seismically active region on the North Coast can be. It sits along the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates connect the Pacific, North American and Juan de Fuca. What's more, it's linked to the Grandfather San Andreas fault that can rock the state and is capable of causing the "big one".

10. The 6.8 (downgraded by the USGS, which I predicted it would be) was felt throughout Northern California, Southern Oregon, the San Francisco Bay Area and even in Reno, NV. Since the shaking on land nearest to the epicenter was light--no damage and once again this region "dodged a bullet"...

WEST COAST QUAKE FORECAST:  Currently, astrologically speaking, we are in Pisces (a sign of water) and edging into Aries (a sign of volcanic fire). This is a time more likely to spawn quakes with tsunamis and earthquakes in the Pacific Ring of Fire.  
I give 60% probability that a stronger earthquake than the March 9, 2014 6.8 Offshore NorCal shaker (with a tsunami alert or waves) in Alaska and/or Offshore Northern California (in the same region or perhaps south down to SF Bay Area offshore) will happen before May 2014. 

The Cascacia subduction zone is too quiet.  We are in a seismically active time period: In the past, great Earth changes happened in these two months--Japan March 11, 2011 quake-tsunamis, Alaska March 27, 1964 5 minute quake-tsunami, and April 1906 SF quake-fire occurred. The West Coast is overdue for a significant earthquake-tsunami and it could happen in the near future.